(Reuters) – The head of planemaker Airbus has voiced growing support for plans to upgrade a popular wide-body jet to sharpen its contest for plane sales with Boeing, while urging European authorities to weaken the euro to help exporters compete.

In a trio of European newspaper interviews published on Tuesday, Fabrice Bregier, chief executive of the flagship division of Airbus Group, said there were predictions of strong demand for an enhanced version of the A330.

The possibility is “growing every day” that Airbus will go ahead with the so-called “A330neo”, though not necessarily at next week’s Farnborough Airshow, he told the Financial Times.

The newspaper quoted him as saying it might be possible to sell more than 1,000 of the revamped aircraft.

Airbus has drawn up plans to revamp its biggest-selling wide-body passenger jet to preserve a second front in its competition with the delayed Boeing 787 Dreamliner while it prepares to introduce the A350.

It said over the weekend it had not decided whether it would launch the A330neo at the July 14-20 air show.

Interviewed by France’s Les Echos, Bregier said the industry’s largest showcase event fell “a bit early” to finalize the project and that launching it there is “not an objective”.

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