China joins queue for Airbus giant
Fri "The Australian"
China joins queue for Airbus giant
Geoffrey Thomas, Toulouse
October 08, 2004
AS Airbus Industrie adds the finishing touches and electronics to its massive A380 super jumbo, the European manufacturer is set to land even more orders for the giant jet – this time from China.
Over the weekend, French President Jacques Chirac, who is visiting China, will formally receive the orders from Premier Wen Jiabao.
Sources have told The Australian that China Southern will buy four A380s, while Air China will commit to six.
The orders will take A380 firm sales to 149 from 15 airlines, including 12 from Qantas.
Four A380s are now structurally complete. One will never fly and is being used for fatigue testing, while the other three will take part in a 15-month 2000-hour flight test program. Rollout of the first A380 is scheduled for mid-January, with the first flight in late February.
Qantas is coy on what seating configuration it will have on its A380, but Singapore Airlines, which will be the first to operate the super jumbo, will have fewer than 500 seats.
Emirates, which will operate the A380 on both the Sydney-London and Melbourne-London routes via Dubai, will have a 535-seat configuration for the longer sectors from Australia and 655 for its Dubai-London route.
Qantas takes delivery of its first A380 in November 2006.
The biggest customer for the A380 is Emirates, with 45 on firm order.
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