DUBAI (AFP) — Dubai’s Emirates airline will receive its second A380 superjumbo on October 24 and hopes Airbus will stick to the timetable of further deliveries after earlier delays, its president said Thursday.

“It will be delivered on October 24 in Hamburg,” Tim Clark told AFP during a tour with journalists of Dubai airport’s new terminal, which is due to open next week.

He said further deliveries would take place in November and December with a fifth aircraft to be delivered in either January or February.

Emirates launched a non-stop service with the A380 between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008 ( © AFP)

When asked if he believed Airbus would abide by the new timetable, he said: “I hope so.”

Emirates launched a non-stop service with the A380 between Dubai and New York on August 1.

The airline, which is owned by the government of Dubai, is the largest customer of the delay-plagued A380. It has 58 on order in a deal worth about 18.8 billion dollars based on list prices.

It had earlier said it will receive a total of five of the superjumbos during its current financial year ending next March.

Emirates has had a long wait for the superjumbo, with the first initially scheduled for delivery in October 2007, but Clark ruled out seeking compensation from manufacturer EADS.

“We’ve always said we’re more interested in getting the airplanes than haggling over the money,” Clark told reporters on Thursday.

“We came to an arrangement over the late deliveries.”

Clark said Emirates, the Middle East’s biggest carrier, was also facing delays in the delivery of Boeing airplanes it has ordered.

“The Boeing strike of course has given us some difficulties. We are facing delays in the programme,” he said.

Boeing’s 27,000 machinists, who represent 16 percent of the US company’s workforce, went on strike on September 6 after the collapse of three-year contract talks.

Clark said Emirates would use the second A380 to turn its twice-weekly flights to New York into daily flights. The other superjumbos will be used to operate flights to London Heathrow starting in December and Sydney and Auckland next February.

Source: AFP

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