Not all good news for Airbus
As the two major aircraft manufacturers put on shows of strength over the weekend, a grey cloud appeared in Sydney for Airbus as the reality of compensation for delivery delays became a topic of discussion. Qantas, for all the media hype yesterday, are seeking compensation for late delivery of the new superliner, and they are not alone, with SIA and Malaysian Airlines also in the queue.
John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer for customers, said in an interview on Australia’s Channel Nine television that details of compensation talks with airlines were confidential and he would not go into details.
When pressed, he said: “Well remember the airplane cost about 285 million dollars a copy, so I think it is safe to say we are talking a couple of million dollars.”
“It is not an enormous amount of money. We ask for a significant amount of money up front (to help build the aircraft)… and we have a delay, there is some payment made per day of delay.”
Charles Champion, the group’s chief operating officer, suggested compensation would be decided on a case by case basis.
“In some contracts there are matters related to compensation and this is negotiated directly between Airbus and each customer when the time comes,” he said.
Airbus’s production schedule for the double-decker plane is running four to six months later than promised, meaning the first delivery is not expected before late-2006.
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