NZFF

Superjumbo stalled another year
Deliveries of Airbus's flagship A380 superjumbo will be delayed for up to another year after
problems at the European manufacturer turned out to be worse than thought. The extra delay is
likely to put off the superjumbo's entry into service on the Singapore-Sydney route until later next
year and see Qantas deliveries delayed well into 2008.

The board of Airbus parent company EADS met yesterday and was expected to confirm as early
as today that the troubled program's third delay would be long er than airlines were initially led to
believe. Deliveries are also expected to be slower.

Airbus insiders last month gave some hint of the extent of the problem when they warned that
deliveries to Qantas and Emirates, already delayed twice, would not tak e place until the first
quarter of 2008. Speculation yesterday was that Airbus's new production schedule would mean
those deliveries would now not take place until later that year, putting them two years behind.
There were also suggestions delivery of the first plane to Singapore Airlines would be put back
from December to the second half of next year. Singapore had planned to launch the aircraft this
year and had been running an extensive campaign telling people it would be first to fly the A380.
The delay will force the launch airlines to find other planes to service planned A380 routes and
angry carriers will claim further compensation, already estimated to be costing Airbus E2 billion
($3.4 billion). Qantas has already booked $104 million in compensati on for the first two delays to
its 12 A380s and has indicated it will seek additional compensation for further delays.

Moe (Peter)

Yahoo, sorry for Airbus, but yahoo to me, the longer this ugly bird takes to get into the sky the better, it will spoil it for the rest. This case is proof that bigger is not better, and you should all buy something better looking.

Alex

Oh bummer,

Personaly I cannot wait for the day the first 380 arives at NZAA. I'll be at the lookout with my camera for sure

Just be carefull that it doesnt fall down on you while your in your viewing spot there trolly. Personally i think it is incredibly ugly and should be banned but also want to see if it is a success(hopefully not though)

gee, i didn't realise there was so much animosity towards the A380's looks...

i want to see it fail because i'm a Boeing fan, but like Trolly, i want to see it when it arrives in Auckland for the first time. which at this rate, sounds like it will be 2015...

I am like Trolly I will be at the NZAA look out nice and early on the day it arrives but I will be claiming compensation from airbus if the big ugly bird breaks my lens hahahahaha.

Took these at the Paris Airshow last year, during its first official public outing.

They did a test recently and cleared the plane within 90 seconds. Of course a few people had broken bones...but hey, whats a few broken bones when you are fighting for your life

Regards

Mailman

mailman wrote:They did a test recently and cleared the plane within 90 seconds.

with maximum capacity, using half the exits no less.

One man broke his leg and 32 people suffered minor friction burns and other injuries during an exercise in which 853 people and 20 crew members practised the emergency drill.
[...]
At least 40 percent of the passengers must be women and 35 percent must be over age 50 to simulate a typical planeload. Each participant will receive about $65.
[...]
In a 1991 test of a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 inside a darkened hangar at Long Beach, Calif., one attempt took 132 seconds and resulted in 28 injuries. McDonnell Douglas did the test over and got people to move faster. But in the mayhem, a 60-year-old woman caught her foot on a slide. She flipped, crashed headlong against a pile of people at the bottom, and broke her neck. She was left paralyzed for life. McDonnell Douglas failed the test and the FAA denied its request to put up to 421 people on the MD-11.

so a good effort by airbus to get more people off a bigger aircraft with only a few extra injuries than an MD-11. not too bad at all...

...

it's the flying manatee

I'll buck the trend here and say I quite like the looks of it

I like the wing design most of all, the bulbious head could take a while to get used to but it has character.

Yea, I'll say it doesn't look to bad from behind when flying.

Alex

If were being postive about the A380's looks, I think the shape of the wings are prety neat, like in the 3rd photograph up there ^^ they just look so strong to actuly bend up wards from the fusealarge... lol anyways it still looks like this bus has been modeld on a large sea creature!