Airbus A380 hits turbulence - again

The much hyped commercial passenger plane, the A380 from Airbus, is in trouble. In a span of four months, two chief executives have resigned - the second CEO stayed for only about nine weeks. It is yet to be known how long the current CEO will last. The A380, which is the world's largest commercial aircraft ever to go into production, has the aviation industry holding its breath, not in excitement, but over whether this plane will ever be able to fly reliably. When the Europeans announced that they will challenge the Americans with a bigger, faster aeroplane, the world said it could not be done. And then Airbus started with the actual flying tests, clocked sufficient mileage, and the Asian world queued up to be the first to get one.

Singapore Airline, is the first airline, was set to receive its first air plane by the end of this year. But Airbus has just announced a further delay -the second in three months- that will see the first air plane delivered in October 2007. The other 13 aircraft will be delivered in 2008 and 25 in 2009. The first delay was caused by what Airbus called “a slow down” and “a bottleneck” of the re-routing of wiring and harnessing of the cabin including the in-flight entertainment system. But it was these little “bottlenecks” which cost the head of Gustave Humbert, who was then the president and CEO of Airbus. He conveniently failed to mention it to shareholders that these bottlenecks will take about 13-months to fix.

Christian Streiff, who succeeded Humbert, resigned without any explanation. Streiff has been succeeded by Louis Gallois. The A380 is not only the largest and heaviest passenger aircraft ever manufactured but it is also a double decker with seating capacity of up to 555 passengers and can travel longest distance non-stop than other aircraft. It is capable of travelling non-stop between London and Singapore or Los Angeles and Sidney, for example, doing a distance of 8000 nautical miles equivalent to 15000 km. Its presence is also overwhelming. Its side rear wing is longer than that of the Boeing 747-400 Combi, until now the largest passenger aircraft. Standing from the ground the plane is 24.1 metres high and weighs 361 tonnes when without fuel, passengers and cargo. But if fully loaded, the weight tops at 560 tonnes. The A380 is expected to touch down in Africa, for the first time, on 26 November at Oliver R. Tambo International Airport in South Africa.