Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said the delayed delivery of his first Airbus A380 will amount to several weeks due to shortcomings with equipment being installed in the plane.
“The standards were not up to what we expect,” Mr Al Baker said in an in interview in Tokyo. He said the issues stemmed from buyer furnished equipment, referring to components purchased and supplied by the future owner of a plane.
Qatar Airways, which has the highest five-star grade from Skytrax, had been due to receive its first superjumbos as early as this month, before the airline and Airbus said in June they’d need more time for the handover as they fine-tune the aircraft. Skymark Airlines, the only Japanese carrier to order A380s, last week said delivery of its superjumbos would be delayed by as much as six months as specifications of the plane’s interiors did not match.
“If it was six months we would have walked away,” Mr Al Baker said.
