EADS shareholders have requested a Dutch court probe into the firm’s management policy over the delayed A380 programme schedule.

The shareholders suspect EADS of having held back data about delivery problems with the A380 and announcing further delivery delays only in June 2006, leading to a sharp decline in share prices.

The A380 superjumbo programme has been facing delays since 2006, following a wiring problem in the plane assembly.

The shareholders include Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM), Deka Investment and two funds of Swiss bank UBS, which together hold over three million EADS shares.

In August 2009, a group of investors in EADS also filed a class action lawsuit against the firm.

Recently, French regulators cleared EADS, and current and former bosses of insider trading and market abuse, ending a three-year probe.