Dubai's Emirates airline, the largest A380 customer with an order for 58 of the superjumbo jetliner, said this week it had received a letter in which Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders explained that the European plane maker sought to move from "handwork/manual work" to a "real industrial process."

The letter sent by Enders did not include specific warnings about new delays, though the business magazine Wirtschafts-Woche, which cited the letter by Enders to customers and company sources, quoted a company source as saying Airbus would "almost" reach this year's delivery target of 13 planes, but was likely to miss the 2009 target of 25 planes. (Source: Agence France-Presse)

Emirates reportedly has already received up to $109.9 million from Airbus as compensation for A380 delivery delays, Air Transport World reports.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, which has ordered four of the $300 million, 525-seat planes, said it also received the letter.

Reuters UK reports this week:

The United Arab Emirates' Etihad Airways said it received a letter from European planemaker Airbus warning of a possible delay in the delivery of the A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft.

Qantas Airways was not available for comments. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa said they had not received any warning.

Airbus, the biggest single industrial project in Europe, confirmed that its chief executive had written to the A380 customers telling them that production had reached a "critical phase."

The flagship A380, which went into service last year with Singapore Airlines, has been hit by successive problems that have caused three delays, generating billions of dollars in cost overruns for Airbus' parent company EADS. Deliveries of the A380 have fallen behind schedule after a series of industrial missteps since 2005.

As such, "the reputation of Airbus's parent firm, European Aeronautics & Defense Systems, is seen at stake as it strives to deliver 13 planes this year," Reuters points out this week.

In this week's letter, Ender said he was running "a major review" of the A380 production program. Enders conceded that "our plan to ramp-up production is definitely quite ambitious."

In 2006, A380 sections reached the French assembly plant with wiring flaws that caused a production halt. Airbus blamed the fiasco on the failure of French and German plants to use the same design software, and was forced to start assembling the first 25 planes by threading the 500 kilometers (311 miles) of wiring through each aircraft manually, pushing deliveries back by on average two years. The news sliced a quarter off EADS's stock and triggered a management upheaval.

Separately, this week French labor unions claimed victory in their attempt to stop Airbus from selling some factories -- a plan that is part of a major restructuring and job-cutting program. The news follows the collapse of talks to sell some factories in Germany.

Airbus previously experienced a two-year delay in actually getting its A380 to market, and the company wiped out more than $6 billion of its forecast profits in the process. It was an expensive lesson in February 2007, costing 10,000 jobs over four years and forcing the closure of six of its European plants.

Perhaps the only comfort for Airbus comes from the United States, where rival plane maker Boeing faces delays over its 787 program. The Chicago-based aircraft maker's Dreamliner has been delayed as contractors failed to complete work.

Yet the two main unions at Boeing say they will strike if needed for better wages and benefits.

Talks begin tomorrow on a contract for 25,500 machinists and have already started informally for 20,000 engineers and technicians. Boeing employed nearly 160,000 workers at the end of last year. Both unions say they made concessions as air travel fell after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City.

Bloomberg News reports today:

Machinists and engineers will cite stumbles that have put the 787 at least 14 months behind schedule as proof that Boeing should have given them the work rather than rely on suppliers, union leaders say. At the same time, they say they'll use the threat of a strike as [. . . ] Boeing presses to get the plane into service to push for better wages and benefits.

The two unions may gain extra leverage in contract talks due to Boeing's own 787 delays.

Earlier

King of the Sky: Boeing Dreamliner vs. Airbus A350 XWB

Airbus Lands Super-size Private Aircraft

Dreamliner on Schedule, No Thanks to Olive Trees

Global Supply Chain Woes from the Pros

Resources

Agence France-Presse

Air Transport World

Reuters UK

Reuters

Economic Times

Bloomberg News