Airbus: A380 2012 targets in doubt as wing cracks issue slows production

A380. Courtesy, Airbus

Airbus said its A380 sales targets are becoming harder to reach this year because of the wing cracks issue discovered in January on in-service aircraft (ATW Daily News, Jan. 23).
Speaking on the sidelines of Thai Airways’ first A380 delivery in Toulouse last week (ATW Daily News, Sept. 28), Airbus VP-marketing Bob Lange said it has been a tough year, with little time left to meet its sales target of 30 of the type for 2012. As of Sept. 26, four A380s had been sold.
“We aim to sell faster than we can build, but the target becomes more challenging with every passing month and week,” Lange said.
The cracks issue, discovered early this year, resulted from a carbon fiber-aluminum material that was used in A380 wing rib feet construction. The material was selected because it is both lightweight and strong, but it is now known to become brittle during the production tempering process (ATW Daily News, May 25).
Lange told ATW that modifications have been defined to resolve the wing cracks issue. These are currently being retrofitted to existing aircraft and will be fitted to aircraft coming off the delivery line sometime in 2013.
Lange said the issue was impacting production line throughput, not because airlines were withdrawing orders but because the issue provided opportunity for delaying or renegotiating orders already placed.
“Repeat customers in particular want to ensure full resolution of the issue so that they can be certain agreed delivery dates will be met,” Lange told ATW.
The target production rate is 30 aircraft a year, but the wing cracks issue has meant aircraft are being produced at a reduced rate of 2.3 a month, down from the earlier 2.7 a month. The long-term target is three aircraft a month; capacity of the existing production line is four aircraft a month.
“We are still aiming to reach our delivery target for 2012,” Lange said.  “This has been embarrassing and a challenge we have to get over. It has created a lag in the system and we are working through that.”
He said the target now was to get stalled orders active again. “The question is whether we can do that before the end of the year.” He acknowledged there would inevitably been some knock-on effect into 2013 but said, “This is a long-term business and we aim to be back at cruising speed in 2014.”
Airbus expects the A380 to start showing a profit in 2015.