More EK A380 "Good News"
A380 costs, delays causing headaches at Emirates
Thursday March 15, 2007
Emirates President Tim Clark told ATWOnline last week in Berlin that the operating costs of its A380 fleet will be higher than originally planned.
"There are still an extra six tons of weight we can't get out of the A380. That will cost us extra money in operation for the next 10 or 15 years," Clark said.
Emirates' 45 A380s, which constitute a $15 billion investment, each should generate $200 million for the airline annually. The weight issues are compounded by the money EK is losing because of the program's delay. "We will get our first A380 in August 2008, 21 months later then scheduled," Clark said. "By that time we should have had 18 A380s already in service, with each vehicle flying 15 hours a day and transporting 500-600 passengers. If you count that together, it is a lot of money." He did not estimate the expected costs of either the operational issues or the delay.
He did say that EK and Airbus are nearing a delay compensation agreement; "We are too important for them, and they don't want us leaving for Boeing." He said a Boeing sales team was in Dubai about two weeks ago to discuss the 747-8 Intercontinental, which Clark said he likes but which would not be able to fulfill certain missions important to the carrier, like nonstop Dubai-Los Angeles service with 400 passengers and a full cargo payload. He also said Airbus will present its final A350 XWB version to EK next month.
by Kurt Hofmann