Airbus has confirmed a further delay to the deliveries of the A380 aircraft ordered by Singapore Airlines and by Qantas. The chief executives of the two carriers expressed their disappointment for this decision and now they…
Airbus has confirmed a further delay to the deliveries of the A380 aircraft ordered by Singapore Airlines and by Qantas. The chief executives of the two carriers expressed their disappointment for this decision and now they revieving their flight capacities.
The Chief Financial Officer of Qantas, Mr Peter Gregg, said Qantas understood from discussions with Airbus that it would not receive its first A380 aircraft until August 2008, around two years late. We expect to have four aircraft by the end of 2008 and seven by mid-2009, Mr Gregg said, which we understand maintains the original delivery schedule with the other two launch airlines.
Mr Gregg said Qantas was disappointed with the delay and had commenced a review of its capacity needs in light of the revised timetable from Airbus.
He said Qantas was satisfied that the delay was due to production problems at Airbus and not technical issues with the aircraft.
As far as Singapore Airlines is concerned the first A380 will now be scheduled for delivery in October 2007, and deliveries of subsequent aircraft will occur in 2008 and beyond.
The delays are disappointing; all the more so because the flight test and certification programme is proceeding well, and the delays are down to production issues.
Singapore Airlines is assessing the impact that the delays, just notified, will have on forward capacity growth, and assessing options to mitigate the situation.
However, new capacity will be injected to the Singapore Airlines fleet, with the first of 19 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft being delivered in November 2006. Six of these aircraft will be delivered before the end of 2006, and ten will be in service by mid-2007.
Pursuant to the Agreement between Airbus and Singapore Airlines, compensation will be provided. Terms of the contract remain confidential between the parties.
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