Airbus A380 Production Schedule Further Revised

Following an assessment of its A380 production programme, Airbus has announced a further revision to its delivery schedules for the aircraft.

Instead of delivering 13 A380s during 2008, Airbus says it will now deliver 12; while in 2009, instead of delivering 25 aircraft, it now plans to deliver only 21. As things stand now, Airbus is predicting an average delay of between two-and-a-half and three months for each delivery and has already begun discussions with customers who will be affected.

The last of the Wave-1 aircraft (hand-crafted, low production rate) will be completed by the end of 2008, after which all further production will be Wave-2 (full serial design and manufacturing process). Airbus says that production of MSN26, its first Wave-2 aircraft, has taken approximately three-and-a-half months longer than anticipated—primarily due to what it describes as “the learning curve effect”. The company says it is not simply a matter of taking on extra staff. Because of the highly complex nature of the programme, Airbus believes it has already reached the point where it could not realistically absorb too many “new hires” without potentially compromising production quality. In any event, the company says it is difficult to find enough (suitably qualified) people on the open job market. It says that many of the resources it needs to improve Wave-2 production times will come when resources are re-allocated at the end of Wave-1 production.

In response to questions about the company’s credibility in light of yet another delay, Tom Enders, Airbus’ CEO, declared sincere regret for the delay, but made it clear that there were no issues with the aircraft or its quality, and pointed out that the A380 is performing extremely well in service with Singapore Airlines, which, he said, is very happy with it. He said that the only difficulties were with the industrialisation process, which the company is addressing.

Asked why customers should accept the latest predictions for delivery dates, Tom Williams, who is the Executive Vice President, Programmes for Airbus, explained that when it previously revised schedules in late 2006, Airbus did not have an adequate industrial baseline or demonstrated performance to judge by. He said it now had “a much more robust process” and “much more robust knowledge” of the programme so that it understands what is required to produce the aircraft.

In response to a question from the BBC as to whether this latest delay would result in cancellations, Airbus’s chief operating officer John Leahy said there had been “no cancellations whatsoever” and that no customers had given any indications of cancelling orders. He commented that airlines had been very positive about the aircraft, reiterating Tom Enders’ comments that it was proving very reliable and effective in service, and added that airlines were able to charge a premium for A380 services.