Emirates avoids Airbus A380 delay

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NO IMPACT: Emirates will not be affected by the latest delay to deliveries of Airbus's A380, Clark said. (Getty Images)

Dubai-owned airline Emirates will not be affected by Airbus's announcement of further delays to the delivery schedule of the A380 superjumbo, its president said on Tuesday.

Tim Clark said that Emirates was not concerned news that deliveries for the A380 were expected to be affected this year and in 2009, despite being the plane's biggest customer with 58 planes on order.

"Our Wave 1 aircraft are safe and we are going to get our first four A380 aircraft as originally scheduled, by the end of this year with the fifth one expected in March next year - so we are not really concerned at this point," said Clark, speaking to UAE daily newspaper Emirates Business 24/7.

"We are due to receive another eight A380s between April 2009 and March 2010, one or two of which may get pushed back by a couple of months," he said.

Clark, who had previously warned that the airline faced "serious damage" from any further delays, said he expected the first A380, the world's largest passenger plane, to arrive at Emirates this summer.

RELATED: Emirates hit by A380 delay

Airbus on Tuesday said it had cut down its A380 deliveries to 12 this year instead of 13 as previously planned, and 21 deliveries in 2009 against the planned 25. These were to be followed by about 45 annually from 2010.

RELATED: A380 hit by fourth delay

It marks the fourth time Airbus has announced delays in delivering the 525-seat double-decker plane.

Airbus has paid compensation to Emirates for the past delays, as the airline would have received 17 A380s by now if the setbacks had not happened.

Among other Gulf airlines, Etihad Airways has ordered four A380s and Qatar Airways has ordered five of the superjumbos.

Etihad, which is not scheduled to receive its planes until 2013, said on Tuesday it had received a letter form Airbus informing it of further delays, but would not be adversely affected by the announcement.

"Etihad is due to take delivery of its first A380 aircraft in 2013 and is not expecting the delay to have any impact on its scheduled deliveries or operations," said Iain Burns, Etihad's vice-president for corporate communications, reported Emirates Business.

Qatar Airways, whose superjumbos deliveries have already been rescheduled for 2012, said last week that it was considering ordering more of the planes, which are expected to be delivered between 2013 and 2014.

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