Qantas Takes Delivery of it's First A380

Qantas A380-841 VH-OQA (cn 14) "Nancy Bird Walton" arrives in Singapore on its delivery flight to Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Andrew Hunt)

Australia's Qantas took delivery of its first A380 superjumbo on Friday and said it was in talks with Airbus to buy more.

Qantas took delivery of the first of 20 double-decker planes it has ordered some two years later than scheduled following problems in assembling the world's largest airliner. Airbus denied reports its target of 12 A380 deliveries in 2008 was threatened by new delays and chief executive Tom Enders said he was "ready to bet a magnum of champagne that we will deliver more than 11". "I confirmed our target two days ago and I confirm it again today," Enders said.

The Qantas plane is the seventh A380 to be delivered this year and the eighth since the first plane rolled off the assembly line at the end of 2007. Airbus plans to deliver another five this year including two more to Qantas.

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said the airline had started discussions with Airbus about adding to the 20 A380s it has ordered and was also in talks about buying its mid-sized A350. The A350 lost out to Boeing for that size of plane two years ago when Qantas opted for 65 787s, becoming the biggest customer for the larger of two variants.

Qantas is the third airline to take delivery of the A380 after Singapore Airlines and Emirates. It will enter service from Melbourne to Los Angeles on September 20 and fly the Sydney-Los Angeles route on September 24.

Qantas indicated bookings at the main airline and low-cost Jetstar unit were surprisingly resilient given the growing financial turmoil. It said it had experienced no problems so far with debt funding due to the credit squeeze. "In the last four weeks we have had very buoyant intakes from Qantas and Jetstar in all classes," Dixon said.

(Reuters)