European plane-maker Airbus has announced it will scale back deliveries of its A380 superjumbo jets for 2009 and 2010 after customers deferred orders due to the economic crisis.
Airbus will now deliver 14 A380s this year instead of 18 and more than 20 in 2010, a company statement said. No official schedule for deliveries in 2010 had been previously been announced.
”Following specific requests for deferrals from customers due to the current economic and aviation crisis, Airbus is adjusting its delivery schedule for the A380 in 2009/2010,” said the statement.
Airbus added that it did not expect any “significant impact” from the decision on its earnings report.
Qantas last month announced that it was deferring orders for four Airbus A380s and 12 Boeing 737-800s to address a “rapid and significant deterioration of trading conditions”.
Air France-KLM, which suffered heavy losses in the fourth quarter of last year, said in March it had asked for a delay in the delivery of two A380 superjumbo jets.
Airlines around the world, hit by a sharp drop in demand in response to the global crisis, lost up to 8.0 billion dollars (6.0 billion euros) last year, half of which was incurred in the last quarter, according to the International Air Transport Association.
By: pierrepjc - 18th May 2009 at 16:12
Commonality only if you offer the customer a standard aircraft/airframe, should they be happy or require a standard aircraft.
What is currently happening in the aircraft market is nothing new, Airbus is however well placed to deal with it, as are Boeing.
Paul
By: Ship 741 - 18th May 2009 at 16:05
Standard to what? I should hope a family of aircraft have a great deal of commonality and standardisation.
Standard as in common. We are saying the same thing.
By: Ship 741 - 18th May 2009 at 12:55
Both. The bigger the aircraft the more customization is required. A380s are – when first and business class are concerned – top level products of their operators.
Just to put it into perspective: 2009 and 2010 will see no or at best single digit B747 delivery, reduced B777 delivery and probably close down of the B767 line. No A380 specific problem.
Just to put it into perspective…..The economic slowdown could not come at a worse time than it is for the A380. The two year production delay pushed their ramp up in output right into the economic crisis….further pushing back breakeven, which one journo recently estimated as being up around 600 frames now. The other programs are mature. Even the low risk 748 program has already been paid for by past 747 profits.
And oh by the way, Boeing is designing the 787 to be very standard. Very little customization, so they won’t have that problem….or should I say excuse.
By: Schorsch - 18th May 2009 at 09:11
Is that the fault of Airbus or the Customer? :diablo:
Both. The bigger the aircraft the more customization is required. A380s are – when first and business class are concerned – top level products of their operators.
Just to put it into perspective: 2009 and 2010 will see no or at best single digit B747 delivery, reduced B777 delivery and probably close down of the B767 line. No A380 specific problem.
By: Schorsch - 17th May 2009 at 12:07
The problem with A380 is that it is so extremely customized that you cannot switch a specific MSN to another customer once a certain milestone is passed. Once an aircraft has its cabin, it would cost huge money to adapt it to a different customer.
Sign In
May 17, 2009 at 12:26 am