Jury Still Out on A380
Growing pains or fundamental flaws? The giant new A380 has had its share of problems, leading some to question whether its launch was premature. (EPA Photo)
Singapore. An engine blowout, smoke in the toilet and most recently, an alert of a possible problem with the rudder which is part of the aircraft's tail.
Dubbed the "new queen in the sky" when it made its grand debut in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines (SIA), the Airbus 380 superjumbo has been grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately.
On Nov 4 last year, a Qantas A-380 headed for Sydney made a U-turn to Changi Airport because of engine trouble six minutes after take-off.
All 459 passengers and crew on board escaped unhurt but the giant bird landed with a hole in one of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines after a mid-air explosion ripped off parts of the casing, raining debris over Batam.
The mishap triggered a massive probe led by Australian air safety regulators. Emergency engine checks and swops were done on not just Qantas' fleet but SIA's and Lufthansa's as well, both of which also power their A-380s with the Trent 900.
A design fault in the engine has been identified as the likely cause of the blowout.
Just as the dust was settling, another headline.
On an SIA A-380 flight from Hong Kong to Singapore on Jan 31, cabin crew reported the smell of smoke coming from one of the toilets.
There was no fire but on landing, engineers detected burn marks on the wiring below the toilet.
A week later: another SIA superjumbo in trouble, this time an aircraft sitting in Zurich preparing to depart for Singapore last Monday.
Before it could take off, crew members received a systems alert of a fault with the rudder control system. The plane was grounded for several days before the problem was fixed and the aircraft flown back to Singapore.
The glitches have left travelers wondering and worrying. Is there something terribly wrong with the double-decker jet or is the A-380 suffering from teething pains one would expect for any new aircraft type?
Experts we spoke to were inclined towards the latter. They added that while the hiccups have caused airlines and travelers much inconvenience, the probes into the incidents have so far not suggested that there could be serious safety flaws with the A-380.
Still, a few admitted it had crossed their minds that perhaps the extreme pressure Airbus was under to deliver an aircraft that was already two years behind schedule, could have led to a premature debut.
Kunal Sinha of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan said: "While it is not uncommon for new airplanes to have teething problems after entry into service, the frenetic pace of electronic system failures that have forced the grounding of the A-380 poses questions about the quality and maturity of the airplanes that have thus far been delivered."
He added: "Still we think this is all part of the learning curve and there is no reason to lose confidence in the safety and efficiency of the A-380."
David Chambers, regional vice-president (Asia-Pacific and India) for technology company Sabre Airline Solutions, said: "Both Airbus and Boeing have faced issues in the past when they have introduced a new aircraft so it's not surprising that there have been some challenges with the A-380."
Old-timers may remember that on Jan 21, 1970, the very first Boeing 747 commercial flight from New York to London had to be aborted when the aircraft, which was already on the runway, encountered engine overheating.
A plane switch and six hours later, the flight got off the ground.
Putting a new aircraft into service is challenging enough but more so for a machine as complicated as the A-380, experts said.
It is the biggest commercial jet ever built with a significant 25 per cent of the aircraft (by weight) made up of composite materials instead of the usual aluminium, to help cut weight and boost efficiency.
Other firsts: new-generation fuel-efficient engines, new production methods such as laser beam welding instead of manually fastened rivets to hold pieces together, state-of-the-art aerodynamics that, among other benefits, reduce drag which in turn reduces fuel consumption.
There is more: advanced on-board information systems that provide swifter troubleshooting and reduced maintenance costs.
Each A-380 has about 500km of wiring - the distance from Singapore to Ipoh - which drives, among other things, the in-flight entertainment systems.
The 43 aircraft now flying with five airlines - SIA, Qantas, Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France/KLM - have completed more than 24,500 flights and carried more than nine million passengers.
As more of the superjumbos take to the skies and Airbus and its partners continue to iron out the glitches, there should be fewer operational disruptions, experts said.
Still, what has happened so far will cost the European plane-maker dearly, they warned.
Already, the Qantas engine blowout has made a dent in the earnings of British engine giant Rolls-Royce, which said on Thursday that net profit slumped 73 per cent to £480 million (S$990 million) last year, partly because of costs linked to problems over the reliability of its aircraft engines.
Airbus has a far bigger problem, said Mr Shukor Yusof, an aviation expert at Standard & Poor's Equity Research.
After spending more than US$15 billion (S$20 billion) to design and build the A-380, it may never sell enough of the superjumbos to recover the investment, much less make a profit.
Demand has not taken off due to the changing market dynamics, he said, and the preference is clearly for mid-sized aircraft offering 250 to 350 seats.
Rising fuel prices is also not helping the four-engined aircraft.
Mr Shukor said: "And that's why despite a three-year delay, the Boeing 787 has not been severely affected by cancellations."
The aircraft with a capacity of between 210 and 290 seats depending on model and configuration is expected to enter into commercial service later this year.
Airlines have already ordered more than 800 of the aircraft and more than 500 Airbus 350s - another mid-sized plane that Airbus is now developing.
"How many for the A-380 since the October 2007 launch? 240," said Shukor, "and 90 of that is from Emirates which is almost 40 per cent of the total!"
Break even point for the A-380 is easily more than 450 planes, experts said.
The recent problems will just add to the woes of Airbus, which is already financially hard-pressed.
"Even before the economic crisis," Sinha, "the A-380 was clearly oversized and oversold. The programme was a bit doomed from the very beginning and the airplane is incompatible with today's air travel trends.
"On top of that, the current negative publicity has further downgraded the brand equity associated with Airbus and the A-380."
Shukor added: "This is an exceptional aircraft in terms of technology and dynamics but it has cost a lot for Airbus to develop. From a passenger perspective, I like the A-380 and consider it a success notwithstanding the Rolls-Royce engine fiasco and other teething problems. But from an investment perspective, the A-380 so far is a nightmare for Airbus."