Airbus may put off deliveries of some Airbus A380 Superjumbos till January 2010

Airbus Industrie is likely to put off delivery of one or two of the 13 Airbus A380 Superjumbo aircraft, earlier scheduled for 2009, till January 2010.

On October 2009, Airbus had reduced its delivery target of Airbus A380 Superjumbos from 14 to 13. Follow this link if you are looking for photos of the Airbus A380

Photo: Airbus A380

Till date, the company has delivered 7 A380s.

The double-deck, wide-body, 4-engine Airbus A380 is the largest passenger airliner in the world.

Based in Toulouse, France, Airbus Industrie is a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

According to Fabrice Bregier, chief operating officer of Airbus, client-financing still remains difficult and so it will “take time for the business environment to return to normal.”

The company is still aiming at delivery of 13 Airbus A380 in 2009, but one or two of them could come out only in January 2010, Fabrice Bregier told reporters during a ceremony for the delivery of Air France-KLM’s first Airbus A380 Superjumbo.

Bregier added that “everything will depend” on the capacity of the airlines to take the Airbus A380 at the end of 2009.

Air France-KLM, which has ordered a total of 12 Airbus A380 planes, will put the first one of these into service in November 2009 on the Paris-New York route.

A week ago, Thomas Enders, chief executive of Airbus Industrie, had said that it was “too early to relax” regarding customer-financing and “to believe that it was guaranteed.”

As in the case of the Boeing Company, Airbus Industrie receives the bulk of payments for its planes upon delivery.

The overall “delivery rhythm” of the Airbus A380 in the first half of 2010 is expected to be similar to the present rate, Enders added.

Based on catalogue prices, which can differ considerably from the actual prices paid, the company can get $330 million for an Airbus A380 Superjumbo.

Turkish Airlines, the national airline of Turkey, has said it will buy 3 more Airbus A330 planes, in addition to the 7 Superjumbos it had ordered earlier in 2009, plus 2 cargo versions of the plane. The 3 passenger versions, scheduled for delivery in 2012, were an optional clause in the order placed in June 2009 for 7 Airbus A330 aircraft.

Meanwhile, British Airways, the flag-carrier airline of the United Kingdom, said in a press release that the airline expects to take the first delivery of the Airbus A330 in 2013.

British Airways will take delivery of 4 Superjumbos in the financial year ending March 31, 2014, instead of 6 planes as planned earlier. It will take 3 aircraft in the financial year ending 2015; 3 planes in 2016; and 2 planes in the financial year ending 2017.

In July 2009, British Airways had announced a 5-month delay in the delivery of the first 6 Airbus A380s, which it had expected at first to arrive in 2012. At the time, it had said the delivery of the remaining six A380s would be delayed by 2 years, arriving in 2016. The last deliveries are planned for 2016.

In the face of decreased demand for air travel, several airlines have been reducing capacity.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), carriers worldwide are expected to incur combined losses to the tune of $11 billion in 2009.