Airbus Delays A380, Freighter Included
Everyone knew Airbus was trying to pin down how long it would take to sort out problems in the passenger version of its A380 superjumbo, the world's largest passenger plane. What no one knew for sure until last week was whether wiring snafus plaguing the passenger version would also cause static for the freighter.
Turns out they did.
Airbus added about a year's delay to its entire A380 program, pushing back into 2010 the first freighter deliveries that were slated to come in 2009, as well as delaying passenger models to late 2007.
U.S. customers FedEx and UPS had each ordered 10 freighter copies, and International Lease Finance Corp. five more, for 25 total on order.
The latest hitch clearly bothered some buyers. Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline - the largest A380 customer with 43 of the 134 passenger versions on order - said "this is a very serious issue for Emirates and the company is now reviewing all its options."
ILFC President John Plueger said that company, too, is "keeping all our options open" and would address the A380 situation in an Oct. 17 board meeting. Industry sources said the other freighter customers might also be studying their equipment orders. At the very least, every airline needs to adjust its plan to meet customer demand without getting the big planes when planned.
FedEx and UPS were launch customers for the freighter - with first deliveries respectively scheduled for the first and fourth quarters of 2009 - but spokesmen said they got no warning from the plane maker before Airbus and parent EADS publicly acknowledged the program's delay.
It was not immediately clear how they might respond. FedEx had been an early advocate for a plane that could be a veritable supertanker for air freight. UPS spokesman Mark Giuffre said again last week that "there is not another aircraft out there right now that does what the A380 does."
