46 pages of complaints on the A380
 

So, EK says, and they lost 500 hours of revenue flying time.
Not good, me thinks.

Emirates A380 Issues
March 15, 2009
Airbus said on Sunday it was taking very seriously the issues Dubai airline Emirates had raised about its A380 superjumbos and was working on solving any problems.

Germany's Der Spiegel weekly said Emirates officials had presented Airbus managers with a list of defects in the world's largest aircraft at a meeting in Toulouse in February.

"We take the criticism and the feedback from Emirates very seriously," an Airbus spokeswoman said. "We are doing everything we can to overcome the issues and we are working very closely with our customers to solve that."

"We have a lot of minor, unrelated issues. We are working with them to solve the issues as quickly as we can," she said, adding that Airbus held regular meetings with its customers to get feedback on its aircraft and discuss any issues.

Emirates, the biggest buyer of the A380, has ordered 58 of the superjumbos and received its fourth plane in December.

An Emirates spokeswoman confirmed on Sunday that the carrier had met Airbus executives to give them feedback on the A380's reliability performance.

"Technical issues are expected with new aircraft, particularly one that uses many new technologies," she said. "Emirates has a good relationship with Airbus and we continue to work closely with them to address these technical matters. Airbus is pulling out all stops to sort things out."

The spokeswoman said that Emirates' remained confident in the A380, adding that it was an "excellent" aircraft and that feedback from its customers had been "very positive". She said the company had no plans to cancel any orders.

Der Spiegel said said that Emirates gave a 46-page presentation in Toulouse, telling Airbus officials about heat-damaged power cables, defective engines and numerous malfunctions.

The planes have lost 500 hours of flying time due to grounding to deal with problems, Der Spiegel said.

Well said suninmyeyes

All new aircraft have teething problems - something a few of the posters here would do well to remember, and which of course EK will have been well aware when they placed the early orders.
It's a large and complex aircraft, and not all the bugs can be eradicted until has it has entered service.
Iirc, the 747 had a very poor performance in it's early days, (the lack of power from the power from the P&W engines is a matter of record).
I well remember how long it took for the -200 series on the PA99 (LHR-MIA) to reach is final cruising level with a full load of pax, fuel, and the stuff under the floors.
Why Der Speigel has chosen to highlight this can only be guessed at, but before this thread is moved into the 'Airlines and Airports' thread, and amalgamated with the existing postings, you might like to consider that point. A spoiler fed to them by Boeing perhaps? - I couldn't possibly comment:)

What we have here is some of the early in-service bugs coming to light -as already said, with every piece of new, complex machinery, whether it's a new aircraft or from my industry, a new piece of IT hardware/software, there will always be bugs.

The only way for something like this to become mature, stable and reliable is to try it, test it and see what problems arise during normal operation. It did take a long time for the 747 to become as reliable as it is today, and it was all a matter of time. It's a matter of time with the A380.

Another Blow!!!
 

Another blow to A380, SIA a/c made emergency landing at LHR with Hydraulic Failure!!! Qantas had problems last week, Big Bird is doing fairly poorly right now!!! Hope they find quick fixes for it!!!

Hmm. Emirates complaining about a recent acquisition? :eek: Shocking news. :E

500 hours of lost revenue time does seem a bit much when you consider 4 big birds have been with the airline and only seven months of service for the oldest among them. Somebody over at Emirates must be very adept at obfuscatory ciphering.

A380 -
 

There was another post with a link to an article saying Emirates was looking to delay deliveries, hardly surprising in the current market.
Little bit of of jockeying for position going on?
Tough time to be selling a new type of plane. Boeing would do well to keep quite.
20driver

No doubt all the problems will be sorted in time - as mentioned this isn't a new thing when introducing a new type of aircraft.
They can't fix how fugly the damn thing is though ...

Supporters/pilots/engineers et al of the Boeing variety will be quick to point out how ugly/inefficient/unworthy the rival Airbus product is, at every conceivable opportunity.

Sadly, the truth hurts:

The spokeswoman said that Emirates' remained confident in the A380, adding that it was an "excellent" aircraft and that feedback from its customers had been "very positive". She said the company had no plans to cancel any orders.

It is a magnificent aeroplane and by far and away the quietest and most comfortable flight I have ever had in nearly 40 years of aviating, from the front and the back!

I hope they sell hundreds and wish all who operate them all the very greatest success. The aircraft fully deserves it, as do Airbus.

As one of the guys who pays your wages (a passenger) I think the A380 an excellent aircraft - roomy and quiet - even down the back. Initial 747s couldn't start their engines if the wind was in the wrong direction......(and am I the only one who thinks the later 747s -300 and -400 were noisier on the inside than the -200s?) Until the A380 one of the quietest rides I had was on a DC-8......

true ... and true
 

i agree...

but with the technology we have now it seems that most of the comparisons we are making are not that accurate.. just an opinion..

software are available for almost for any kind of simulation there is.. im not saying that A380 should be trouble free. its just that its being compared to an aircraft which was in developement in the 1960s..
And i personally think that our standards should be higher.

anyway I do hope Airbus fixes all the bugs and whatever it is that needs to be fixing..

No news!
 

So a new airliner has a few problems, for any one who understands this industry it should be no suprize.

I have no doubt that the first few launch customers got the aircraft at a cost that reflects the fact that they would have to iron out some of the teething problems.

There are two factors that make the launch of the A380 different to every other a/c in history (be it narrow or wide)

1. The Internet allows public forums to discuss matters that, before, remained in offices and pubs.
2. The news media did not report every little failure and problem. Many media owners now direct their editors to find fault where non exists and turn up anything they can find to be of presumed 'national' or 'public' interest.

The media have no perspective of the introduction of a passenger aircraft (of any size) and have zero interest in comparing the issue with the launch of other Airbus and Boeing a/c. Fortunately, by next week, this particular article will be overtaken by some other manufactured crisis and the engineers will get on fixing the machine.

IIRC, VS were the launch for the A340-600 and decided not to do it again. Being the lead or early customer means that you save on purchase cash and then spend it on salaries and overtime. That's life in the airline world and there is nothing new here.

Oh come on PAXboy, why let the facts get in the way of a good story ???? ;)

Go and have a look for all the problems that were and still need to be addressed on the E145 (for example)...if you can find that document or even evidence that such problems were ever documented and discussed in such a way that the A380's are then please let me know because after flying these little things around for a while I'm sure that its more than 46 pages...even today!

How many of those 46 pages are devoted to minor things such as a sticking toilet door lock rather than FMC fails during flight...? I notice that no A380 is grounded because of these problems, so I guess they're not serious in the life threatening sense, unless of course one of the coffee makers isn't working (though on an A380 I'd expect more than one)

I think the real story here is that its *just* 46 pages of things that Airbus are sorting out to make the damned thing perfect rather than just truly outstanding as it is at the moment.

fc101
E145 driver

I should point out that a man who thinks progress ended with the TriStar is moaning about teething troubles on a newly introduced aircraft. Suffice to say no A380s have crashed in the Everglades, burned out on a runway killing everyone or blown a main gear tyre into the cabin.

Some people just don't change. How sad to start a thread bitching on a commonplace event on a new type.

Like the massive delays when the B744 went into service due to so many cabin configs being offered. Or the B787 which is.....late. Or Concorde which was 7 years from flight to service entry. Or the B767 which some airlines demanded with a THREE crew cockpit and was delayed as a result....

God there's NO perspective on here sometimes.

Factoid One:

All new aircraft have teething troubles - who ever makes them.

Factoid Two:

Of note the SQ A380s havebeen flying around for over one year with consistent, regular problesm with nonworking toilets, sinks that will not empty and on so many flights, at lest one, if not two toilets in Economy alone, being taped off as U/S

Airbus has providedupdated / modified components over the 12 months an yet it continues.

Recently passengered Y on x6 SQ A380 sectors and on every flight at least 2 toilets were U/S as they ahev been for months- months.

Loads of simialr passengr experiences popualate the internet and are the issues openly discussed at crew social level in SIN.

I and others have SQ A380 toilet floors awash from the sinks with crews 'mopping' up.

And that is just the toilet issues; still not fixed.

oh and it is a quiet aircarft to travel in, but the Y class seast are so thin there is no lumbar support of any kind.

Throw in all theotherissues and Airbus must have a component quality audit issue allegedly

Good old Der Spiegel; anything remotely un-green and non-left is ripe pickings for them; but good fodder for anyone remotely interested in castigating a fine product and with nothing better to do than twiddle their thumbs and old starter motors.

Emirates have gone so far as to categorically discredit the report:

Fair use quote: DowJones
IntesaTrade

Media driven frenzy
 

Some may recall: Early low altitude test flights off UK's west coast were announced in advance in local newspapers; to advise coastal residents of possible loud noises at certain hours on certain days. But when one day a test flight was canceled and still over 100 calls of noise complaints were registered, BAe had canceled the newspaper notices. :rolleyes:

Slightly less than seven years, actually.... March 2, 1969 to January 21, 1976.
Not quite comparable... two early prototypes were built and used to prove that the basic concept of a Mach 2 airliner was even viable.

Mach 0.8 airliners have been around for how many years?

Admittedly, even on Concorde, the coffee makers have remained a pain to the bitter end.

CJ