Air France has underlined its confidence in its newly introduced Airbus A380 despite having its operations with the type disrupted for a third time, in less than a month, by technical problems.
Its latest incident, involving an issue with the electrical system deploying leading-edge slats, follows the cancellation of a service from New York Kennedy in mid-December.
Air France attributed this earlier cancellation to a fuel-transfer problem. A third incident, linked to the autopilot, had previously resulted in the aircraft having to return to Kennedy shortly after take-off on 27 November.
The most recent cancellation, affecting flight AF006 from Paris Charles de Gaulle, meant the carrier had to transfer travellers to a Boeing 777-300ER - although the lower capacity meant the jet could only accommodate 303 of the 481 passengers. Other passengers have been rebooked on other flights.
Air France says the technical incidents are "minor" and says they are unconnected to the A380's "technological innovations".
"These incidents do not undermine the confidence that Air France has in this aircraft," it adds. "All airlines experience operating irregularities when they introduce new aircraft into their fleet."
In Flight International's recently published A380 in-service report, Airbus acknowledged that it "still had work to do" to raise the giant's fleet-wide technical despatch reliability to a satisfactory level, and has undertaken to achieve the industry acceptable level of at least 98.5% by the middle of 2010.
Source: Flight International
