Lufthansa chief executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber expects Lufthansa to receive its first Airbus A380 in the summer of 2008 – “but summer is a long time”, he says.
Mayrhuber brushes off concerns about the news that the programme would see further delays as “teething problems”, pointing out that other major aircraft programmes have suffered these too. “We have to allow for such issues. Obviously it is better if there are no delays, but we have to manage it.”
The extra setbacks in the programme will not have any impact on Lufthansa’s evaluation of whether to buy more of the aircraft, Mayrhuber says. “We buy aircraft on a long-term basis. We’ve seen teething problems on the [Boeing] 747-100, -200 and -400, [McDonnell Douglas] DC-10 and [Airbus] A340 programmes: that’s not something that would have an impact on long-term decisions.”
Source: Flight International
