THE head of Airbus parent group EADS says recent production problems with the aircraft manufacturer’s A380 superjumbo have been resolved.
Louis Gallois, EADS chief executive, also said that winning a massive new order for the superjumbo was “an acid test” for the plane.
Wings for the A380 are made at Airbus’ Broughton plant, near Chester, but the commercial roll-out of the double-decker jet has been plagued by a series of production foul-ups which have slowed the programme by more than two years and added billions of pounds to the company’s costs.
But Mr Gallois said the recent industrial problems on superjumbo had been brought under control and that the aerospace and defence parent group had enough cash left to pursue its objective of making reasonably-sized acquisitions in defence services or security in the US despite the weakening of the euro.
On Tuesday the Airbus announced an order for 32 superjumbos for Dubai-based airline Emirates – ending a slack period in which significant orders for the world’s largest jet have been hard to find.
The Arab world’s largest airline already has 10 A380s in service and another 48 on order, so the latest order means it will rapidly acquire a fleet of 90 of the giant jets.
Speaking at Berlin Air Show yesterday, Mr Gallois said: “It was the acid test for the airplane ... a company that is operating 10 A380s for more than one year with a good experience has chosen to increase its fleet in such a proportion.”
Mr Gallois dampened fears of a Franco-German rift over the European debt crisis, saying the eurozone's largest economies knew they had to work together. Relations between Germany and France have frayed during the European debt crisis, with the two countries presenting different visions of how to overcome the problems that are battering many euro zone nations.
EADS was created 10 years ago from a merger of between France and Germany, followed by Spain. Despite efforts to run EADS as a normal company, it is often seen as a sensitive barometer of touch-and-go relations between Paris and Berlin.
