AllDayDeli,
Bit of an oversight if they've only figured that out now!!
My understanding is that all the long-range deliveries will be out of TLS and all the shorter-range deliveries out of Hamburg, as TLS's rwy is longer. One would hope that, with all the long-range A340-500 & -600 deliveries going on, the strip is reasonably useful.
Given the investment made in putting the factory at TLS, I'd be rather surprised if the strip length wasn't checked!!
I also seem to recall some mention of ferrying off to Istres for at least part of the flight-test programme - maybe that's strip-length related??
Also, is the first flight being made by 001 or 002?
TD67