Emirates to claim compensation from Airbus over A380 wing problems

As the world’s largest operator of the A380 with 21 in the fleet, Emirates is having to ground six aircraft at a time for the vital repairs to be made.

According to the FT, Emirates president Tim Clark, has said the airline expects to lose up to $90m of revenue by the end of March because of the A380 groundings that began in January.

Analyst Saj Ahmad agrees that the issue is a serious one for the Dubai airline.

"While Airbus has placed a 105m Euro charge on repairing the in-service A380 fleet, the ongoing costs to airlines for maintenance and indeed to Airbus' supply chain to enact design changes to the flawed wing brackets will reverberate for much longer.

“The A380 has entered its fifth year in service and issues as seen with the cracking wings points to either oversight in the design process where tolerances and longevity have been inaccurately calculated or simply because the design was rushed to counter the delays and excess weight that Airbus is still struggling to remove.
“Emirates is clearly right to be worried given that they are the biggest A380 customer. One that Airbus simply cannot afford to ignore. Tim Clark’s comments to the FT show immense displeasure and for a while, Airbus had been in outright denial of the crack problems on the A380 wings until the threat of a fleet grounding emerged, followed by a stern airworthiness directive from EASA.
The problems arose with the discovery of two types of cracks on an L-shaped bracket connecting the A380 wing skin to its ribbed frame.
The FT said that like Airbus, Clark says the A380 is safe to fly, but added: “From a commercial point of view, it’s a dreadful experience. It has caused a lot of commercial hardship and we are not very happy with the way this has gone.”
Emirates has found wing cracks on the 10 A380s that have been inspected so far, Clark said adding it was likely that all 21 would need remedial work.
Emirates has a further 69 A380s on order with Airbus.