A380 wing-crack fix to take toll on Emirates
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This week Airbus acknowledged that carriers such as Emirates who fly the A380 will need to ground their planes for up to eight weeks when the wings undergo permanent repair work.
The CEO of Emirates has voiced his displeasure at the amount of time needed to make the repairs and the disruption that the work will bring. “Of course we are not happy, but we have to live with it,” Tim Clark reported to Bloomberg. “There was an error in design and specification of metals and plastic composite to the aircraft. They have made detailed studies of what happened and what they have to do.”
As the largest customer for the double-decker jumbo aircraft, Emirates has ordered 90 A380s in total, and has already taken delivery of 21. The wing-crack debacle has cost EADS, the Airbus parent, hundreds of millions of dollars in repair and service costs.
Airbus said the cracks arose due to the selection of a less flexible aluminum alloy used to make the wing brackets, as well as the way in which fasteners are put through holes, and the stresses involved in fitting portions of the wing together.
The planemaker’s engineers claim they had developed a permanent fix for the superjumbos already in service, and devised design changes to eliminate the problem from aircraft still under construction. Once safety authorities have approved the change, Airbus can alter manufacturing of the wings, allowing aircraft coming off the production line to be free of the defect by January 2014.
“The affliction the A380 wing cracks have caused Emirates is one that will damage their relationship with Airbus, especially as the A350XWB is also going to be further delayed. Tim Clark has warned Airbus about this numerous times and while they’ll get compensation, it won’t make up for the crewing and scheduling angst that they will have to suffer,” Ahmad added.