Airline Emirates said Monday it was canceling an order for 10 Airbus A340 jets and was sending a team of technicians to France to assess the accuracy of promised delivery dates for the A380 superjumbo.
The airline, which has ordered 45 of the A380s and is the program’s largest customer, said it would also cancel its options for 10 more of the mid-sized A340s.
Emirates had said earlier this month that it was “reviewing all its options” after Airbus announced a further 10-month delay on delivery of its order of 45 A380 superjumbos.
That delay came on top of an earlier one-year postponement of delivery. Airbus announced a first six-month delay to the program early in 2005, followed by a second in June this year. Emirates, the largest customer for the 555-seat double-deck aircraft in a deal worth roughly $13.5 billion, described the delay as “very serious.”
Meanwhile, Airbus denies the cancellation from Airline Emirates.
Airbus said Monday that a visit by Emirates Airlines to check on A380 production plants is simply a follow-up on a promise of transparency to customers of the superjumbo made by former CEO Christian Streiff.
Airbus also on Monday received an order for an additional eight A380s for Australia’s Qantas Airways.
Geoff Dixon, CEO of Qantas, said the order increased the airline’s commitment to the A380 to 20 aircraft, with delivery expected between August 2008 and 2015.
“We are convinced that these problems relate to industrialization issues at Airbus and will be remedied, and in no way relate to the technical capacity of the A380,” Dixon said.
He continued: “The package also includes an additional four A330-200 aircraft which will help Qantas mitigate capacity concerns associated with the delay of the airline’s first A380s.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.