Another delay for Airbus A380

Airbus A380, superjumbo aircraft has been hit with another delay for six months, according to an Airbus source. A reduction in the number of planned deliveries in 2007 has also been predicted. The holdup in production was caused by problems at the A380 assembly plant at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, southern France.

“The delay is related to the industrial difficulties linked to the adaptation of the electric wiring to the different versions (of the plane) demanded by clients,” said an Airbus source.

This is the third slip for the superjumbo program which had initially faced a first six-month delay in early 2005 followed by another one in June this year. Also, the number of deliveries to be made to the clients had come down from 25 to 9 in June, which is now expected to be reduced to half.

EADS, the parent company of Airbus has scheduled a meeting of its board of directors, on Sep 29 for making further decisions regarding the matter and the status of delays to production of the Airbus A380 would be known by then.

The first A380 could be delivered to Singapore Airlines by the end of this year, as anticipated but it may not be put into service until April. "Singapore Airlines is working with Airbus towards delivery of the first A380 in December, but Airbus can only confirm the date after they have completed their technical review at the end of September," said airline spokesman Stephen Forshaw.

Reportedly, the first A380 for Air France is not expected to be in service until April 2009. An Air France spokeswoman said that no new information had been received by them since June, when Airbus announced the second production delay. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., Lufthansa AG and Dubai-based Emirates had also not received any new delivery schedule.

Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht said that the examination of the project has not yet been completed. Until it is, (the report of new delays) remains hypothetical.