Airbus trading case dismissed

France's financial watchdog has cleared 17 current and former bosses of Airbus parent company EADS of insider trading. The executives had been accused of selling EADS shares in 2005 and early 2006 when they realised there were delays to the Airbus A380 superjumbo. The subsequent public announcement of the delays to the project caused EADS's share price to fall sharply. EADS said it welcomed the verdict of the Financial Markets Authority. The bosses had always denied wrongdoing. Parallel case The watchdog's decision followed a investigation lasting almost three years, and a week of behind closed-door hearings. It ruled that knowledge of the technical problems to the A380 could not be considered " privileged information". EADS itself, and two of its major shareholders - French group Lagardere and Germany's Daimler - were also cleared. EADS said it was "confident" that the watchdog's verdict will be repeated by the parallel criminal investigation. Five of those questioned by investigators, including former EADS co-president Noel Forgeard, still face criminal proceedings that could lead to a court trial. The first A380 to be delivered to an airline was handed over to Singapore Airlines in October 2007 , 18 months behind schedule. It had been delayed by a number of technical problems.