E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Major Airbus A380 customer sending in the auditors
LONDON The biggest buyer of the world's largest airliner, Emirates, said Friday that it would send its own audit team to Airbus before entering talks to address the A380 superjumbo's two-year delay and the fact the plane is 5.5 tons overweight. "We have not yet engaged with Airbus as regards not only the delay but the fact it is overweight," the president of Emirates, Tim Clark, said.

Clark was in London to open a new lounge at Heathrow Airport designed for the A380, which will now not see one of the planes until the third quarter of 2008.
He meant 2011 but couldn't say that.
He said the Dubai-based carrier was set to send its own eight-person audit team to the Airbus manufacturing facilities in To lose Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany, to assess how realistic the plane company's latest proposed delivery schedule was.

"It would be foolish to say we do not expect anything further," Clark said when asked if the third and most recent delay in the A380 would be the last. "By the time we get the first one, we would have had 18 flying" were it not for the delay, Clark said, adding that the delays were costing the airline "hundreds of millions of dollars" in lost revenue.
I hear Boeing makes planes Mr. Clark. You might give them a call, they could be real accomodating.
He declined to comment on what sort of financial compensation Emirates might seek from Airbus over the delays or the weight problem, which could mean the planes use more fuel than promised and run up heavier- than-expected engine maintenance bills.
It's hard to imagine EADS ever turning a profit on the A380. It's a turkey, pure and simple, and EADS will keep at it only because the French and Germans don't dare cancel it and shutter the assembly plants.
Emirates has 43 of the $300 million Airbus A380 superjumbo jets on order and has been a vocal critic of the company, which is running behind schedule after encountering problems in installing wiring in the planes.

Clark said that he planned to lease seven Boeing 777 planes and would hold onto them for 10 to 15 years, giving himself some insurance should there be any further delay to the A380 schedule. Clark said that cancellation was one of many options open in the negotiations but stressed that Emirates still needed the A380. "It will still be a hugely potent profit generator for us," he said. "They are an integral part of the Emirates expansion plan."

Emirates decided against getting two of the freighter version of the A380 and has also balked at taking delivery of the Airbus A340- 600 HGW (for high gross weight) model. Clark said Emirates was interested in Boeing's new 747-8 Intercontinental model, the latest variant of the jumbo, which is due for passenger service in 2010.
Posted by: Steve White 2006-10-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=170072