PARIS, August 30 – Delivery of a second Airbus A380 to Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, will suffer a further delay of two months, French daily Le Figaro reported Saturday
Emirates put its first giant A380 into service on August 1 with a direct flight from Dubai to New York.
The Middle East\’s biggest airline hopes by next spring to take delivery of four more jumbos serving London, Sydney and Auckland as well as New York. A further 53 A380s are scheduled to be delivered by June 2013.
Le Figaro said in its weekly economics supplement that "Emirates, Airbus\’s top client with 58 of the A380 super-jumbos ordered, has not received its second plane by the end of August as scheduled."
It said Airbus had explained that it was "in discussions with the company to determine a new date."
Delivery of the aircraft, held up by problems with laying out the cabin, would not take place before October 20, nearly two months late, Le Figaro said.
"But it is too early to estimate the impact of the delay on the calendar for 2009 deliveries," the paper added, saying that the Dubai airline "will have to review its plans for flights."
Emirates, with 58 firm orders for the A380 out of a total 198 from manufacturer EADS, is the biggest customer for the huge European plane and is the second client to take delivery after Singapore Airlines which already has five, with the latest flying the Singapore-London route since mid-July.
