A380-800

Malaysia Airlines has taken delivery of its first Airbus A380
which it will use on the London Heathrow-Kuala Lumpur route from 2 July.

The A380 will be flown to Kuala Lumpur today where it will be used
for staff training. It will return to Toulouse in June for completion of
its paintscheme.

Configured with a total of 494 seats, the aircraft has a three-class
layout. This comprises 350 economy-class and eight lie-flat first-class
seats on the lower deck and 66 lie-flat business-class and 70
economy-class seats on the upper deck.

"The A380 showcases our latest premium offering. This will be our
flagship aircraft offering new levels of comfort, luxury and convenience
for long-haul travel," says Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, Malaysia Airlines'
chief executive.

Malaysia has six Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered A380s on order, with
the second due to be introduced on the London-Kuala Lumpur route in
August.

The carrier is due to join the Oneworld alliance in the last quarter of 2012.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/picture-malaysia-takes-delivery-of-its-first-a380-372419/

Airbus A380 operators face a 30,000 man-hour repair programme to address wing-crack issues that have dogged the airliner which will require an eight-week downtime if implemented in one instalment.

The European airframer confirms that if airlines choose to undertake the repair "nose-to-tail" it will require around eight weeks to implement. However Airbus says that it expects most operators would opt to adopt the phased approach spread out over three two-year heavy checks which is less disruptive. In this case, it expects the repair would extend each two-to-three week heavy check by "a few days".

Emirates, which is the biggest A380 operator with 21 in service, is undertaking the repair to each aircraft in one instalment. It says the work will require 30,000 man-hours to implement. The Emirates fleet will be repaired in Airbus facilities or by other organisations on Airbus's behalf because the Dubai carrier does not have the capacity to undertake the work in house.

A380s featuring the new wing design incorporating more twist and a lighter structure will need to be modified slightly earlier as the wing-crack issue has "a slightly greater effect" on these wings. This revised wing design is due to be introduced on A380s being delivered next year.

The retrofit modification will be subject to an airworthiness directive from the European Aviation Safety Agency, which Airbus expects to be issued this summer. It will be available for retrofit in the first quarter of next year.

A modification for new-build aircraft will become available for incorporation on the wing production line at the end of this year. There is an approximately 10-month lead-time on the wing, meaning that this will apply to A380s delivered from early 2014.

Airbus says that it expects that most A380 operators receiving new A380s in 2013 will opt to have their wings repaired during final assembly, resulting in a four-to-six week delay. However some airlines with a more urgent need for their aircraft will decide to have the work carried out retrospectively, it adds.

Emirates Airline says it is facing massive costs and huge operational disruptions as it resolves problems with wing rib feet cracking on its Airbus A380 fleet, and is preparing for negotiations with the European airframer about compensation.

Airline President Tim Clark, talking to Aviation Week on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual general assembly in Beijing, says Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers “John Leahy has said there is no compensation, but we take a different view,” adding, “They [Airbus] have a legal obligation to fix the aircraft at their expense.”

However, he concedes that the purchase contracts do not include clauses for this scenario, noting, “In all fairness, nobody would ever have contemplated anything like this.”

The financial impact on the airline is significant and continues to grow, with Clark estimating that the A380 wing problems have a $30 million monthly impact on the carrier’s bottom line.

Emirates external auditors claim the actual effect is closer to $50 million per month.

Emirates is the largest A380 operator with 21 aircraft in service. It will take delivery of another 23 by early 2014, but these aircraft still have the old wing design.

Airbus has developed a short-term repair program for the in-service fleet, and has designed a longer-term fix for the first 120 aircraft to be delivered by early 2014 that will include modified wing rib feet, among other modifications, to avoid the Type 1 and Type 2 cracks of the original wing design.

The retrofit replaces all of the 23 hybrid ribs, which are made of a mix of 7449 aluminum and a composite material, with all-metallic ribs made of 7010 alloy. The rib feet also will be redesigned to strengthen them, and an inspection manhole in the area where the cracking occurs will be reinforced.

Clark says Emirates discovered 700 Type 1 cracks in the two wings of one aircraft. The more serious Type 2 cracks are much less common.

The airline has had six A380s on the ground at a time, almost one-third of the fleet, since the problems emerged to make checks and preliminary repairs. The last two aircraft were grounded for repairs this week and are not due to return to revenue service until the end of July.

Clark says that while Airbus claims the quick repairs could be done within 10 days, Emirates’ experience is different: its aircraft have been grounded for an average 35 days, and some of them required 42 days.

Moreover, some of the aircraft that have been repaired likely will have to undergo the process again after completing 500 additional cycles. “We know there will be new [Type 1] cracks after 500 cycles because we have seen them well before 500 [cycles] on our aircraft,” Clark says. Operationally that means the airline will have to take aircraft out of service again after a period of only a few months.

Airbus and Emirates have meanwhile mapped out a plan for the permanent retrofit that will return its A380s to the original life cycle expectation. The program will start in the third week of January 2013 and end in November 2014.

The carrier will have four A380s taken out of service at any given time.

Admin a écrit:Je note sur ce cas qu'AF préfère conserver deux fréquences avec des avions plus petits mais de capacité totale supérieure à l'a380.