Qantas to receive A$100m compensation for Airbus A380 delays

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Qantas to receive A$100m compensation for Airbus A380 delays, will add more A330s Australia’s Qantas Airways is to receive more than A$100 million ($77 million) in damages from Airbus for delays in deliveries of its 12 firm-ordered A380-800s. It has meanwhile confirmed orders for four more Airbus A330 twinjets, two of which will be leased.

The Oneworld alliance carrier says in its financial results announcement today that “delays in the delivery of 12 A380 aircraft has resulted in the recognition of A$104.4 million of liquidated damages from Airbus”.
A spokesman says in an emailed reply to a query from Flight's 24h premium aviation news and data service Air Transport Intelligence that “the A$104 million from Airbus will be paid over time until the final delivery of the aircraft”.

Qantas has 12 A380s on firm order and was originally due to have taken delivery of its first Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered example later this year. That was later pushed back to the first half of next year and recently was pushed back again, to late 2007, as a result of production delays that have forced Airbus to delay nearly all early A380 deliveries by around 6-7 months.

The carrier also holds 10 A380 options and there has been speculation that it will soon convert some of these into firm orders, although Qantas says there was no mention of this at a press briefing this morning.