Paris ? The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, took to the sky with a full load of passengers for the first time Monday, and the European aircraft maker announced further management changes in the wake of costly delays to the $13 billion jet program.

The 308-ton jet touched down Monday evening after flying a seven-hour round-trip from Toulouse, southern France, with 474 Airbus employees on board, on the first of four test flights scheduled this week to try out the plane’s cabin environment and systems.

Airbus says it is on schedule to deliver the first finished A380 to Singapore Airlines Ltd. by the end of the year, despite production bottlenecks that are expected to hold up subsequent deliveries by about six months.

The latest hitches led to the ouster of Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert as well as Noel Forgeard, joint CEO of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., weeks after they were announced in June.

Monday saw a further management shuffle at Airbus, which named a new head of the A380 program. Mario Heinen, previously in charge of the single-aisle A320 plane family, replaces Charles Champion – who also steps down from his role as chief operating officer, but stays on as an adviser to Christian Streiff, who succeeded Humbert as CEO in July.

With the A380, Airbus has bet heavily on future demand for very large planes to fly growing numbers of travelers among the world’s increasingly congested major airports. In mid-sized, long-range jets – where Boeing Co. sees much more demand – Airbus is about four years behind its U.S.-based rival’s next-generation plane, the 787 Dreamliner, tailored to cover more destinations with more frequent, nonstop services.

The A380 can seat 555 people in three classes, but launch customer Singapore Airlines is expected to operate the plane with a configuration similar to the 474-seat layout chosen for the test flights with passengers.

During Monday’s sortie over western Europe, about 25 cabin equipment technicians and the remaining volunteers – chosen from 15,000 Airbus staff who entered an internal lottery – put the super jumbo’s cabin fittings and features through their paces, testing out the seating, air conditioning, kitchens and in-flight entertainment.

Flight tests with volunteer passengers are not a required step toward the plane’s certification but nonetheless help to ensure that “airlines will benefit from a fully mature aircraft on delivery,” Airbus said in a statement.