Reconsiders Goal Of 45 Deliveries Per Year By 2010
Airbus CEO Tom Enders revealed Tuesday that the company's
challenges with the A380 superjumbo may not be over. The Associated
Press reports Enders was on hand for the opening of an Airbus
material and logistics center in Dubai when he announced a "major
review" of the A380's delivery schedule is underway.
Dubai is headquarters of Emirates, which is by far the largest
customer so far for the A380, with 58 of the planes on order.
Airbus has said its goal is to turn out 45 A380s per year by
2010. Enders said Tuesday that won't be easy. He stopped short of
saying the goal in unattainable, adding that the review of the
delivery schedule at this stage is "standard practice."
Stefan Schaffrath, the company spokesman through whom Ender's
remarks were relayed, backed away from an earlier quote --
attributed to Enders -- that Airbus is "confident more than ever"
about the program.
Schaffrath now tells The Associated Press Airbus is reviewing
whether workers and suppliers are ready for the change from
individual plane production to full industrialization, and whether
the delivery schedule can be maintained.
The main problem facing Airbus concerns the need to rewire A380s
as they come off the line. As ANN reported, the wiring
issue stemmed from incompatible design specs used by Airbus' French
and German plants -- harnesses made in one plant, did not line up
with the fuselage segments produced by another.
Airbus hopes to have a common design platform in place by the
time the 26th airframe is manufactured... which is still a long
time off. Until then, the planes come off the assembly line with
the original, faulty design... which then must be reworked, adding
time.
Another, less significant A380 challenge lies in delivering the
last two of six planes ordered by launch customer Singapore
Airlines, then resetting to build a different cabin layout
specified by Emirates and Qantas.
Enders has said increasing A380 production is the greatest
ongoing challenge for Airbus. He adds that the workload to build
one A380 is equivalent to building eight of the planemaker's
highly-popular single-aisle A320s.
In more positive news Tuesday, Airbus announced it has received
a "letter of acceptance" from Tunisair, covering the purchase of 10
single-aisle A320s, three widebody A330s, and three long-range A350
XWBs, still under development. The deal would be worth almost $2
billion at list prices.