Willie Walsh, CEO for parent company International Airlines Group, announced that the delivery of the airline’s first A380 super jumbos is likely to be still in 2013, but will be pushed back “towards the third quarter of 2013.”
Walsh said,
We are in discussions with Airbus about deliveries. The A380 deliveries will be pushed back and it’s likely we will continue to take delivery of the A380s in 2013 but it will be probably towards the third quarter of the year before we take delivery of those aircraft.
Walsh added,
The 787s remain broadly on target in terms of delivery – there’s been a little bit of slippage but nothing of any great significance. We remain broadly on target to take delivery of the A380s and 787s.
Commenting on the beginning of the A380 construction process, British Airways’ CEO Keith Williams said,
Our teams across the airline have been working in partnership with Airbus to ensure that preparations are well underway for us to receive this pioneering and leading edge aircraft, so that it goes smoothly into service for British Airways for the first time next year.
Airbus has been working under a tight schedule to meet its deliveries, following its efforts fix a cracking problem with A380 wing-rib brackets, which have affecting many airlines that operate the aircraft.
Cracks were first discovered on an A380 in December 2011 on a Qantas-owned Airbus A380. Cracks on several aircrafts were later discovered, including A380s aircraft operated by Emirates, Singapore Airlines, and Air France. Soon after the detection of cracks in the wings of several aircraft, European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered the inspection of all Airbus A380 super jumbos.
Airbus is currently designing a modification for the A380's wing to fix the problem. However, the first aircraft that will have this new wing integrated into the production cycle will be delivered in 2014.
Airbus is working on meeting its delivery schedules, as well as fix the problems with the A380 wing-rib brackets.
2 comments... read them below or add one
I wish that the Airbus A380 had a flight engineer; 3 man crew is bether than 2 man crew.
Why does this article talk about the [tiny] wing cracks, where the main issue has to do with financial management on behalf of BA? This makes this article less objective and it seems that the marketing war between Airbus and Boeing plays a role in this article. You've got to separate these things. There are enough A380's flying around the globe these days and the cracks are of minor concern. However it is a problem for Airbus to solve. Boeing is very glad that the A380 has this problem and they will not stop to ventilate this trough the media. It takes a good reporter to separate management issues [expectations for pax numbers for instance] and technical problems big and small.