Airbus 'intensively' addressing Emirates aircraft problems

AIRBUS 380: Plane maker Airbus working with Emirates to resolve problems with A380 jets. (Getty Images)

Airbus, the world’s largest maker of commercial aircraft, said on Saturday it is working “intensively” to resolve “problems” with A380 jets owned by Dubai’s Emirates airline, according to news agency Bloomberg.

A delegation from Emirates, the biggest A380 customer, cited a series of defects with the plane when it visited European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. in Toulouse, France, last month, German magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday in a preview of an article in its latest edition.

“Airbus takes these problems very seriously,” said Alexander Reinhardt, a Munich-based spokesman for EADS, Airbus’ parent, in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “We are working intensively to fix those problems.”

In a 46-page presentation following the Toulouse visit, Emirates’ officials said breakdowns had grounded the airline’s A380s for 500 hours, the magazine reported, without saying how it got the information. Reinhardt declined to comment further, saying EADS doesn’t discuss private talks with customers.

Emirates, which has ordered 58 A380s, has taken delivery of four. It said March 12 it’s studying options for the aircraft’s delivery schedule that may include pushing back the dates for accepting planes.

“We had a routine meeting with Airbus to discuss aircraft delivery positions down the line,” Emirates said that day in an e-mail, without elaborating.

Airbus last year delivered 12 A380s, after handing over the first one in October 2007. It plans to deliver about 18 of the superjumbos this year, down from 21 it had planned earlier.

Air France-KLM Group said this month it will delay taking delivery of the sixth and seventh A380s it has on order.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG said March 11 it won’t get until 2010 the two A380s it had expected to receive in 2009. The delay reflects Airbus production difficulties, Lufthansa said.

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