Qatar Airways chief executive said a three-month delay in the arrival of its first superjumbo Airbus A380 has cost the airline more than US$200 million in revenue.
“We are a very quality airline and we will not accept any short cuts by any manufacturer,” said Akbar Al Baker, the chief executive of Qatar Airways at a conference in Dubai. “It cost us nearly three months from June to October. In revenue it would be $200m.”
Mr Al Baker declined to comment on whether Qatar Airways would ask Airbus for compensation over the delay.
In June, the delivery of Qatar Airways’ first A380 was delayed as the aircraft did not meet the specification requested by the carrier.
Three months later, Qatar Airways received its first A380, which now flies from Doha to London Heathrow for the airline.
The carrier has ordered 10 A380s and has options for three more.
Asked if Qatar Airways would join Emirates in its call for a more fuel-efficient engine for the Airbus A380, Mr Al Baker said “it is premature for us to talk about this”. He added: “I don’t think that Airbus is today in a position to re-engine the A380 with the numbers of orders they have.”
Airbus was not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, Tim Clark, president and CEO of Emirates Airline said that neither Airbus or the engine manufacturer of the Airbus A380 have signed to upgrade the Trent engine’s fuel efficiency
“We will have a performance assessment and I will report to the chairman, Sheikh Ahmed, by the end of the month. He will make the call,” said Mr Clark.
“We are looking at a combination of engines [in our A380 fleet]. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking to Rolls-Royce,” he added, referring to Rolls-Royce as the only company that showed readiness to work on a more fuel efficient engine for the A380. Emirates is the world’s largest operator of the A380 aircraft.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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