Emirates recently announced that it will commence services to Toronto and Bangkok with its Airbus A380 superjumbo from June 1st.

In order to do this Emirates will have to reposition two of its A380s from the current double-daily New York route.

Emirates representatives have confirmed this re-positioning. One aircraft will be deployed on the three times a week Dubai Toronto service, and one will be used for one of the double daily Dubai Bangkok service.

One of the double-daily flights currently operated by the A380 will be replaced by a Boeing B777-300ER on the Dubai-New York JFK route.

While this re-positioning is occurring, all is not well between Airbus and Emirates. German paper Der Spiegel reports that the airline has slammed Airbus for "defects" on the plane, which has grounded the behemoth aircraft nine times costing the airline over 500 flying hours.

Emirates has presented Airbus with a damning list of defects in the new A380 super-jumbo jet. The airline, which has ordered 58 of the aircraft, warns of a possible "loss of confidence" in the giant plane.

While both the airline and manufacturer are putting on a front on congeniality in public, in private storms are brewing over perceived shoddy work ethic at Airbus and its suppliers, by Emirates.

In a presentation in February, Emirates showed Airbus a 46 page presentation with included photographs of defects including singed power cables, partially torn-off sections of panelling and defective parts of thrust nozzles in the engines.

The other two operators of the Airbus A380 are Singapore Airlines and Qantas. They seem to be taking a softer line with Airbus, but Emirates has a lot more at stake with a 58 plane order which represents over 25 per cent of the total order book Airbus has on the aircraft.

Read the full article here.

Some updates on the production progress of the Airbus A380 superjumbo, courtesy of the A380 production forum.

MSN027 (F-WWSY) the fifth for Qantas (VH-OQE Lawrence Hargrave) came out of the Final Assembly Line (FAL) hangers and made its taxi tests.


MSN029 (F-WWSA) the sixth for Qantas (VH-OQF Charles Kingsford Smith) has been outside since it came out of the FAL in mid February. While inside the FAL, MSN027 and MSN029 had their tails switched. MSN027's tail going on MSN029 and vice versa. During a hail storm last year there was damage to MSN027's tail. To keep the production schedule, the tails were switched and repairs carried out. You will observe the tail on MSN029 (originally MSN027 tail) has been marked in black in some areas.


MSN023 (F-WWST) sixth for Emirates A6-EDF has left the FAL and is now on the flight line. It will make its first engine and taxi runs in early to mid April and also expected to fly in April as well.


MSN017 for Emirates (A6-EDE) will be delivered on 24th April.

Photos 1, 3, 5 courtesy Flickr user A380spotter. Photo 2 courtesy Flickr user Christope Ramos. Photo 4 courtest PictAero user David Barrie. All copyrights rest with them.

Visit the Bangalore Aviation Flickr photo gallery.

Lufthansa has launched a new website devoted to its upcoming Airbus A380 which has a planned entry into service during the 2010 summer schedule. The airline invites visitors to discover more about its future flagship including details about the current status of Lufthansa’s first Airbus A380.

The site is meant for both passengers and A380 fans who can find out, for example, about the route proving programme, which was conducted exclusively with Lufthansa, as well as about component acceptance tests or the transport of sections across Europe to the final assembly facility in Toulouse.



Over the next few months, Lufthansa will add more documentary material including extensive multimedia, to the website, with the aim of highlighting what makes the Lufthansa A380 so special.

A particular page I liked was where the A380 is super-imposed on to some known landmarks like a soccer pitch and St. Marks square, for size comparison.

Visit the website at www.lufthansa.com/a380.

A380 MSN017
The 5th A380 for Emirates Airlines, A6-EDE, is on the flight line at Hamburg and expected to be delivered in April. Thanks to the folks at the Hamburg Airport forum, enjoy the picture. Given the slowdown at Singapore Airlines, there is some debate on whether the next A380 out will be MSN026 (Qantas' 4th A380 VH-QQD) or MSN019 (Singapore Airlines' 7th A380 9V-SKG). I suggest following the knowledgeable folks at the A380 production forum.


Airbus delivers 500th A321 MSN3814
Last Friday, Airbus achieved a milestone and delivered the 500th A321 to Air France, who coincidentally received the first A321 delivered in 1994. As of date, Airbus has sold more than 750 A321s to about 65 customers all around the world.

Philippe Durand of Air France (left) and Uwe Schunke, Director Contractual Acceptance at Airbus

Korean Air order for six Airbus A330-200 WV058
Last September, Airbus fired a shot across the bows of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, when it announced a new longer range A330-200. Weight Variant (WV058) A330-200 has a 238 tonne MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight) providing it a range of 7,200 nm, and thus allowing Airbus a product to take on the first batch of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, till the A350XWB came on line.

Korean Air (KAL) has placed a new firm order with Airbus for six more A330-200 aircraft for the WV058 variant. The 7,200 nm range allows the airline to connect its home base at Incheon to almost all continents in the world non-stop with the exception of South America. KAL will use these new aircraft for medium density non-stop routes to North America and Europe.

The aircraft will be in a three-class cabin layout, and is scheduled for delivery from 2010. The new order increases the total number of A330s ordered by Korean Air to 25, comprising 16 A330-300s and nine A330-200s.

One can speculate plenty, but this appears a preventive measure, and part of an on-going trend, due to the delivery delays on the 787, rather than a cancellation of KAL's 10 787-8 order. With significant vendor involvement in the 787, Korea will not risk economic repercussions a cancellation might bring.

It is possible that the ordered 10 787-8's will get converted to 787-9's, which are expected to commence delivery in 2013, and these will replace the existing KAL A330 fleet, but this is idle speculation for now.

Qantas' bad luck with its planes continue. On March 2, Qantas was forced to declare one of its flagship Airbus A380 superjumbos "unserviceable" at London Heathrow.

Despite best efforts and making hundreds of passengers wait over 12 hours, Qantas engineers could not repair a leak in the fuel system.

Qantas was forced to transfer its passengers on to a Boeing 747, after making them wait overnight for QF10 from London Heathrow to Melbourne to depart. The 747 flight finally departed 13 hours late.

This is the second embarrassing incident for Qantas in recent times. Earlier on January 19th, another of Qantas' A380's was grounded at Los Angeles LAX airport.

Admittedly the Qantas A380's are brand spanking new, and may have some occasional issues, but neither of the other two airlines operating the A380, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, are reporting this level of failure.

Hopefully the engineers at Airbus and Qantas can resolve the issues soon.

Airbus A380-861 MSN045 currently registered as F-WWSG, and destined as the 10th A380 for launch customer Singapore Airlines made its first flight on February 23 and flew straight to Hamburg, where it will undergo outfitting for the Singapore Airlines' luxurious interiors, and is expected to be delivered late this year and registered 9V-SKJ.

The plane had a rejected take-off the day earlier and underwent engine checks.

Last week Air France unveiled its new logo and livery. The current livery which was changed way back in 1975, i.e. 34 years ago. Due to the current cost pressures, the new scheme will be gradually introduced as new planes are inducted or as existing aircraft come in for maintenance.

Air France is now just one word, and the tail stripes have been subtly redesigned.

The French national colours (blue, white and red) remain present on the aircraft’s tail fin and fuselage

• navy blue, predominant since the birth of Air France, evokes the brand’s historical capital and the airline’s efficiency,
• white, the colour of excellence, suggests well-being and the French travel experience,
• the bright red accent, punctuates and energizes the brand, underlining both French chic and the attention paid to Air France customers by the airline’s staff, both on the ground and on board.

Click on the image to see an animation comparing the two tail liveries.

One aircraft that will definitely wear the new livery will be Air France's first Airbus A380 MSN033 which is expected to be registered F-HPJA, which first took to the skies, on a flight to the paint shop, on February 12th. Observe the old livery on the tail. Thanks to Christophe Ramos for the fabulous picture. Do take the time to visit his Flickr photostream.

February 6th saw Airbus A380-861 MSN033 destined for Air France taxiing around Toulouse Blagnac (LFBO) airport.

Click on the images for high resolution pictures

We can expect to see the first flight VERY VERY SOON.

Air France is expected to put the aircraft on the Paris Montreal route.

Thanks to pictaero for the images.

The financial woes at Kingfisher Airlines, forcing them to divert ordered aircraft to other airlines, continue.

First it was the Airbus A340-500's meant for the flagship Bangalore to San Francisco "Silicon to Silicon" flights, that were diverted to Arik when Kingfisher could not take delivery.

Now it is the turn of Turkish Airlines THY, who is taking delivery of four brand spanking new Airbus A321's originally destined for Kingfisher, fitted with the uber-comfortable business class called Kingfisher First, and the great in-flight entertainment system.

With the collapsing domestic demand, Kingfisher has been deploying A321s on the regional international routes. These aircraft had even obtained their India registrations (VT-KRx series).

Pictures from a Turkish blog, showing the interiors confirm that the aircraft are indeed Kingfisher, and this picture shows the Kingfisher liveried A321 with the Turkish flagged TC-JMH registration.

Two aircraft, CN 3637 (Ex VT-KRA now TC-JMH), and CN 3673 (Ex VT-KRB now TC-JMI), have been delivered recently to THY, and the next two, CN 3688 (Ex VT-KRC), and CN 3717 (Ex VT-KRE), are expected to be delivered in late January and February.

There is no news on the fifth A321, CN 3738 VT-KRF.

Kingfisher's must touted alliance with Jet Airways, has also remained stuck in neutral not producing any benefits for either airline, and Air Transport Intelligence is reporting that Kingfisher has again, for the second time, sought a delay in delivery of its ordered A380s to 2014.

The A380 deferral could also be as a result of the fact that no airport in India, other than Hyderabad, which will not provide the needed traffic, is capable to taking the "high take-off weight" optioned A380 that Kingfisher wants. Bengaluru International Airport, which is considered Kingfisher's home base, has deferred its 2nd phase expansion plans, which include an A380 capable runway, due to the slowdown in domestic traffic.

Congratulations to Airbus. With the newest order from Korean Air, the order book for the A380 superjumbo has crossed the 200 mark.


Korean Air has placed firm orders with Airbus for two more double-deck A380 superjumbos, bringing the total number of A380s ordered by Korean Air to ten aircraft. The carrier will operate the aircraft in a three-class layout on routes linking Seoul to destinations in North America and Europe, including Los Angeles, New York and Paris.

Call it wishful thinking, but I was so hoping to see the Airbus A380 in the Air Force One livery. Alas, my wish will not come true, and I will have to live with this CGI image by Gareth Burgess of Flight International.

EADS North America confirmed that it will not respond to a request for information by the US Air Force for an A380 replacement of the presidential transport called the AF-1.

"In 2007 at the USAF's request, EADS North America provided technical information and answered questions regarding several of our widebody commercial aircraft as the service conducted its Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) to recapitalize the current fleet of presidential aircraft.

"EADS North America's strategy for growth in the US is based on bringing value to the US warfighter; making industrial investments in the US and insourcing high technology defense and aerospace jobs. After careful review, we've determined that participation in the AF-1 program will not help us meet these business objectives."

"Though the company will not respond to this RFI, we remain focused on once again winning the KC-X competition with Northrop Grumman, delivering the UH-72A LUH to the US Army and meeting the needs of our US defense and homeland security customers.

"We reiterate our strong commitment to the US Department of Defense and to supporting the warfighter with our products and services."

It is very smart thinking on the part of EADS.

The simple reality, Air Force One, is the symbol of the United States of America. Despite being the leading proponent of the free market system, when it comes to aircraft, US lawmakers seem to follow the rule "Do as I say, not as I do".

A lesson, EADS learnt all to well, after last year's high profile hammering of the US Air Force, by the "Buy American" advocating lawmakers, when the Air Force dared select EADS over Boeing, for the US Air Force KC-X tanker program.

Economics have also played a part. There will be the highest levels of security surrounding the Air Force One program, for which EADS would be required to turn over a "green aircraft" to a U.S. company for systems integration modification, and move a significant portion of its production to the United States.

Despite the prestige, EADS may not have found it economically viable, given the fact that only three aircraft are required.

Singapore Airlines will introduce the the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, on its Singapore-Paris route from June 1, 2009 .

Using the A380 in precisely the manner Airbus intended, i.e. lower frequency with a ultra-large aircraft, Singapore Airlines will cut down the frequency from the current 10 a week Boeing 777-300ER flights to a daily Airbus A380 flight.

Paris will be Singapore Airline's fourth A380 destination, its first in Continental Europe. Singapore Airlines already flies the A380 daily to Sydney and Tokyo, and twice daily to London.

The Singapore A380 is configured with 471 seats, in a three class configuration, and is considered to have one of the finest cabins in the world, especially its award winning Singapore Airline Suites, not to mention the world famous in-flight service.

The ergonomically designed new Economy Class seats maximises knee and legroom, and boast intelligent features such as a non-intrusive reading light and height adjustable leather headrests with side panels.

The Business Class seats are even amongst the widest in the sky. Measuring 86 centimetres (34 inches), each seat has direct access to the aisle, and converts into a fully flat bed within seconds.

The A380 also features the revolutionary Singapore Airlines Suites, a new and luxurious class of travel. Each Suite, enclosed by sliding doors for privacy, is fitted with a leather-upholstered seat, a 23-inch LCD screen for inflight entertainment, and a full-sized flat bed that is separate from the seat.

Across all three classes, KrisWorld, the world’s most comprehensive inflight entertainment system, offers more than 1,000 on-demand options in every seat.

Singapore Airlines currently has six A380s in service, a further 13 on firm order, and options on six more. The introduction of the A380 on the Paris route will follow the delivery of the seventh and eighth A380s in the first half of 2009. By this time, Air France, the European launch customer of the A380, too will receive its first A380.

Till that time, London Heathrow will remain the only airport in the world to have A380 services from all the A380 operators, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and QANTAS.

SQ334 will depart Singapore Changi T3 from June 1, 2009, at 2340 and arrive Paris CDG next morning 0655.

SQ333 depart Paris CDG from June 2, 2009, at 1225 and arrive Singapore Changi T3 next morning 0655.

Singapore Airlines A380 Cabin Layout and Seat Map (Click on image for larger picture)

A mere 16 months after launching services with the Airbus A380 superjumbo, Singapore Airlines is expecting to fly its one millionth A380 customer in February 2009.

Singapore Airlines was the first airline in the world to fly the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, when it began commercial services between Singapore and Sydney in October 2007. The Airline is expecting to welcome its first millionth customer on-board the A380 within the next six weeks, and is planning to surprise the customer and other customers on the flight with a series of goodies, and what a set of goodies it will be.......

The lucky millionth customer will be greeted with the news upon check-in and a special package. Beyond the enhanced in-flight experience, the winner will get to enjoy a host of prizes at the destination, including a three-night stay at a luxury hotel and a chauffeur-driven limousine ride to the hotel, experiences at top-class restaurants as well as a series of other goodies to take away.

The millionth passenger's fellow travellers will also enjoy the occasion with special Singapore Airlines giveaways, and champagne in all three classes. I am confused by this. First and business class passengers are served champagne on-board already. First Class passengers are served their choice of Krug or Dom Perignon, no less.

Singapore Airlines has six aircraft in fleet now, flying daily between Singapore and Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo, and twice daily between Singapore and London. Since its launch, the A380 has clocked over 20,000 flying hours on more than 2000 commercial flights.

In addition to Singapore Airlines, Emirates has four, and Qantas three. With Qantas launching London Heathrow service very soon, the airport will have the distinction of receiving A380 from all the three A380 operators.

FlightBlogger is reporting, Airbus brought MSN033, the first A380 for Air France, it's European launch customer, out to the flight line in Toulouse yesterday.

Image courtesy FlightBlogger. Copyright David Barrie

F-WWSB, which will eventually be registered as F-HPJA. As the photo shows, the airframe has its four GP7200 engines installed, and we can expect it to take its maiden flight within the next two to three weeks.

Snecma Image

Air France was originally expecting to put its new A380 in to service in April 2009 between Paris and Montreal, but expect some delays.

Airbus today, met its revised A380 delivery schedule for 2008 of 12 aircraft.

In Hamburg, Airbus delivered its 12th A380 of 2008, to its largest A380 customer Emirates.

MSN020 registered as A6-EDD is the fourth of 58 ordered by Emirates, and the 13th overall A380 delivered out of 198 orders.

Airbus has been steadily improving its A380 delivery performance by reducing time between first flight and delivery.


In 2009, Airbus has set a goal of 21 A380s, which will include delivery to three new customers. Air France, Lufthansa and China Southern. Airbus has implemented the standardised wiring bundles in the "Wave 2" aircraft from MSN026 (4th A380 to be delivered to Qantas early next year as VH-OQD Fergus McMaster) onwards.

In 2008, Airbus delivered 5 A380s to launch customer, Singapore Airlines, 4 to Emirates, and 3 to Qantas. In 2007, Airbus had delivered its first and only A380 to Singapore Airlines.


Click here for a complete A380 production list

Airbus President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Enders said

We have met our 2008 delivery schedule. That was only possible thanks to a tremendous team effort. This gives us a good basis to further ramp up our production in 2009. With the in-service fleet steadily growing, our airline customers are benefiting from lower operating costs while their passengers are benefiting from unequalled cabin comfort and quietness. The environment is benefiting too. With lower emissions and noise, the A380 is the most eco-efficient aircraft in service today.

As per Airbus the in-service A380 fleet has flown more than 21,000 revenue flight hours in more than 2,200 commercial flights carrying more than 890,000 passengers.

Very commendable. Congratulations to the Airbus team.

In an incident, that will definitely not please either the airline, or the airframe manufacturer, the world's largest commercial airliner the Airbus A380 superjumbo, operated by Australian carrier Qantas was grounded in Fiji due to a computer glitch.

VH-OQB, the second aircraft in Qantas' A380 fleet, recently delivered, and which commenced operations just one week ago, was on a routine flight QF 12 from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) having departed LAX December 26th. It was forced to divert and make an emergency landing at Nadi in Fiji, in the early hours of Sunday, December 28th, when a passenger fell ill on board.

The landing was reportedly smooth. In fact, Fiji had just reached an agreement that Nadi airport would be used in emergency situations by the A380, and the Fijian aviation authorities hailed the landing. Many Fijians rushed to the airport to see the behemoth.

It is then the problems began. As per the Sydney Morning Herald

The ill passenger was taken off the plane and the flight was expected to resume shortly afterwards. But the plane ended up staying on the tarmac for a further four hours after an indicator light in the cockpit came on and required examination by an engineer.

Qantas said the light did not indicate a serious safety issue.

The airline sought approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to allow a Fiji-based A330 engineer to check the plane. However, before it could get approval, Qantas had to cancel the trip, because the flight crew would have breached their allowable working hours.

All passengers were accommodated in local hotels and a 747, sent to pick up the passengers, is expected to fly them to Sydney this morning.

The replacement Qantas Boeing 747-400 reached Sydney as flight QF 8012 with a delay of 25 hours.

Qantas has been having a spate of incidents recently, and I don't know if the bad luck of the airline is rubbing off on the new A380s.

30 December update.

Received a comment from a person claiming to part of the crew, who clarified that there was no glitch, but more of an issue of crew limits. Read the full comment below.

If true, I am indeed very happy.

Airbus SAS today handed over its 11th A380 superjumbo to Qantas Airways Ltd. of Australia.

Airframe serial number MSN022 was registered VH-OQC and christened Paul McGinness.

The plane was the third A380 for Qantas this year, Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said in an interview to Bloomberg.

The first two VH-OQA (Nancy-Bird Walton) and VH-OQB (Hudson Fysh) have been operating between Melbourne and Sydney and Los Angeles. Qantas is expected to deploy Paul McGinness on the "Kangaroo Run" between Sydney and London, starting in January 2009.

With just four days left in 2008, Airbus, the world’s largest maker of commercial aircraft, is scrambling to make one more delivery, in order to reach its goal of 12 deliveries this year.

That aircraft is expected to be delivered to Emirates, its largest customer for the A380, by Dec. 31, Schaffrath said.

Five A380's are already in operation with launch customer Singapore Airlines, and three with Emirates.

Thanks to a post by Jon Ostrower at FlightBlogger, I came across some breathtaking 360 degree panoramas of the Airbus A380. Thanks Jon.

The photographer, Giles Vidal, has produced several panoramic views from the delivery of the first A380 to Singapore Airlines, including tours of the cabin, to the A380 cockpit, and now a beautiful panoramic look inside the cabin of the Qantas Airbus A380.



I strongly urge you to visit the site. I do warn you however, the site is bandwidth hungry, and will mesmerize you and severely limit your ability to get any work accomplished.

Airbus reported completion of the largest civil aircraft deal of the year, a 51-plane order from Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways worth over $10 billion.

The order includes 6 A380 superjumbo, 25 A350XWB and 20 single-aisle A320 aircraft.

The order was first announced at the Farnborough air show in July. However, Etihad's financial woes, and speculation of a merger with fellow United Arab Emirates carrier, Dubai based Emirates, led to months of uncertainty on the order.

The order was finally confirmed last week and made it into the official Airbus backlog, as reported by Reuters on Friday.

Airbus will produce some composite parts in the emirate as part of an industrial deal with Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Development.

Airbus has net orders of 756 aircraft this year, against a target of 850 plane sales in 2008.

Rival, Boeing, which also won a 45-plane order from Etihad this year, has reported 646 gross orders and 640 net orders for 2008 as of Dec. 2.

Airbus also said it had delivered 46 planes in November, bringing deliveries so far this year to 437, against a targeted 470 deliveries in 2008.

While we passengers spend tons of money on noise reduction headphones, and drive cabin crews silly with our umpteen requests for earplugs, weary Emirates Airbus A380 pilots are complaining that they cannot sleep in their crew-rest area in the aft main cabin because the aircraft is too quiet!!!

The pilots claim that the lack of engine noise in the A380's cabin means they are constantly disturbed by cabin sounds, such as crying babies, toilets flushing and cabin crew call bells.

Emirates pilots say, on other aircraft, the noise of the engines drown out the cabin noises. On the A380, even with the pilots sleeping with earplugs the cabin noise goes right through them. I wonder who their earplug vendor is. Earplugs are used by flight line personnel to drown out the engine noise from the outside, which is LOUD!!!

The Dubai-based carrier has asked Airbus for a solution that does not involve substantially adding weight. This eliminates the possibility of adding insulation to the walls of the rest area.

It appers Airbus has "exceeded" on its noise performance on the airline's Engine Alliance GP7200-powered A380s. One option could be installing lightweight noise generators.

Emirates has not opted for the standard Airbus option of locating the pilots' rest compartment behind the cockpit, as it would have compromised the design of the airline's upper deck first-class cabin. This adds to the pilots' problem as passengers mistake the rest area for a lavatory, and repeatedly pull the door handle. Emirates is the only A380 airline till date to have situated the crew-rest areas at the rear of the main deck. The alternate standard Airbus option of locating the pilots compartment in the cargo hold was rejected as "claustrophobic".

What do you think ? As usual comments are requested and welcomed.