Issue 251: A Big Arrival

It is already more than three years since the A380’s April 27 2005 first flight, and even certification – awarded in December 2006 – is now more than 12 months ago, but the program is still very much recovering from the production problems publicly revealed just over a year later in 2006 that has seen delivery delays of up to two years. That issue – concerning design and production issues with the aircraft’s complex wiring system – continues to afflict the program to some degree. In May Airbus was again forced to announce further delays to A380 deliveries, although the scale of the problems, and its impact, is far less significant this time around.

“We cannot go for the full rate increase we had scheduled originally,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders told a media conference call in May, where he detailed how production of so-called ‘Wave 2’ A380s, starting with MSN026 (which will be delivered to Qantas), is being delayed by a further three to four months.

“We are not back to square one, to summer 2006, clearly not. We are in the production process (now), we have hit challenges we have to cope with in the next weeks and months. ” Wave 2 aircraft feature the A380’s redesigned wiring system built-in from the start, whereas ‘Wave 1’ aircraft have their new wiring systems retrofitted during final assembly at Airbus’s A380 FAL (or final assembly line) facilities at Toulouse. Enders told media at Airbus’s annual Technical Press Briefing (TPB) in mid May that the numbers of engineers required on the assembly line rectifying Wave 1 A380s had a “knock-on” effect to Wave 2, particularly as the manufacturer is finding it difficult to recruit skilled workers. This meant that Airbus could not avoid “some incremental delay” to a production ramp-up that “has always been steep. ” “We know how to build the plane,” Enders stressed. But, “there was no way we could recruit skilled resources to ease ramp-up. ” He noted that “To build one aircraft in two years is one thing, but to double that, then double it again,” is much more challenging.

Enders also acknowledged that A380 customers affected by the delay were “disappointed”. But putting a positive slant on developments, he noted that that disappointment at least “proved customers want the aircraft, (that) the design is right. ” The delays mean Airbus will only deliver 12 A380s this year and 21 in 2009, compared with previous estimates of 13 and 25 respectively, and 40 to as few as 30 (down from 42) in 2010. For 2010 deliveries and beyond, Airbus is currently not saying what precise impact the latest delay has, and will instead wait for the production program to further mature before making public commitments. By mid May there were 17 A380s in various stages of production. “We burned up our contingencies,” A380 program chief Mario Heinen told the TPB of the transition from Wave 1 to Wave 2 production.

Early reports are that Singapore Airlines and Emirates will be most affected by delays to Wave 2 deliveries, with SIA stating that its sixth aircraft will be delayed, although it did not say by how much.

Qantas has not yet publicly stated how it has been affected by the delay, but MSN026, the fourth A380 to be delivered to Qantas, will now be handed over in early 2009, instead of late this year.

Airbus was due to provide its customers with firm revised delivery details in mid June.

Airbus says it has not yet calculated the financial impact of the delays, but affected customer airlines may yet press for compensation.

As for the A380’s new wiring system, the first Wave 2 aircraft has been undergoing testing since ’power-on’ last February.

“This aircraft is under test so we know this design works,” Heinen said, “we have demonstrated it, it is sound, it is robust. ” With the transition from Wave 1 to Wave 2 aircraft, ramping up production, supporting in-service aircraft with Singapore Airlines, and working towards deliveries to Emirates and Qantas, it is certainly a busy time for the A380 program. While the production issues are still problematic, in service the aircraft is experiencing a smoother ride.

The A380s in service with Singapore Airlines have “delivered unprecedented levels of operational maturity and performance,” Enders told the TPB. That bodes well for Qantas and Emirates, but anything less than a stress-free entry into service would have been highly problematic for Airbus, given the company had plenty of breathing space to prepare for airline operations.

From the start Singapore Airlines’s operation of the A380 was fairly ambitious, particularly as the initial schedule allowed for just a 110 minute turnaround time on the ground in Sydney, and that there would be no back-up for its first A380, 9K-SVA (MSN003), until the second machine arrived in January.

That meant that the work required for its first ‘A-check’ had to be divided into smaller packages and carried out during its six hour turnarounds on the ground at Singapore between flights. But the aircraft has proven trouble-free. “It’s been 100 per cent reliable,” SIA senior vice president – engineering Mervyn Sirisena told Singapore’s Straits Times as the A380 prepared to complete its 100th operational flight in mid December last year. “We have had a few surprises and very minor glitches here and there, but nothing serious or systemic. ” “Frankly, I’ve never seen such a good introduction,” Sirisena said separately.

A couple of technical issues have caused delays and created headlines – such as a spurious standby static probe heating failure message in January, two fuel pump related groundings in February and March, and a galley cooling problem – but given the scale of the aircraft Airbus and Singapore Airlines have reason to be pleased with how well it is performing in one of the most successful service introductions of an airliner in recent times.

Of course that didn’t happen by accident. Not only did Airbus learn from the poor A340-600 entry into service experience and hire ex Air France long haul maintenance manager Philippe Muhn, with his airline operational experience and focus, to be VP A380 customer services, but the wiring problem driven 10 month gap between certification and first delivery gave Airbus plenty of time to fine tune the aircraft for airline operations.

By service entry no fewer than 10 A380s had flown, including five flight test aircraft, and they had logged over 4400 flight hours. Technical problems with the A380 encountered during route proving flights and reliability testing allowed the identification of about 500 issues requiring rectification, allowing either fixes to be devised prior to service entry, or at least better informing what spare part holdings to place in Singapore or the modification some of flight ops procedures.

Not only was there an informed spare parts inventory in place in Singapore (as well as a smaller holding at SIA’s Sydney and later London outstations), there was also a near 30 person strong Airbus support team based in the city-state to support early operations. They assisted Singapore Airlines’s own A380 Control Centre, including the A380 flight test aircraft manager, pilots, systems experts and maintenance engineers who had been involved in the A380 flight test program, all providing additional training and support.

Airbus also provided engineering support in the initial destinations of Sydney and then London. Back in Toulouse, support and round-the-clock real time monitoring is provided by AIRTAC – the Airbus Technical AOG (aircraft-on-ground) Centre – with further support available from Airbus design office and customer service engineers.

By mid May Singapore’s first four A380s had flown 470 revenue flights over 4000 flight hours, with London Heathrow becoming the second destination on March 18, followed by services to Tokyo Narita from May 20 (the first Narita service in fact had to divert to Nagoya due to weather).

In Sydney, where an upper deck aerobridge and two main deck aerobridges are used, the A380 initially had to cope with a 110 minute turn-around time (Airbus validated 90 minute turn-arounds during route proving flights). In fact, using special scissor lifts to load catering onto the upper deck (which SIA has positioned in Sydney), catering times can be shorter than for a 747-400. (Airbus says replacing catering carts is the biggest time consumer in turning around long haul aircraft. ) Airbus’s early objectives with A380 service entry were to minimise the impact of technical problems, and to identify them quickly enough to allow timely rectification, particularly being sensitive to the fact that Singapore was to operate just the one aircraft for several months until the fleet grew. Early problems had the potential, and did, force Singapore to find alternative arrangements for up to 470 passengers, 100 more than carried in its 747-400s. This size issue is one that will face all A380 operators until they build up their fleets to be big enough to offer some backup.

Airbus has a “very aggressive approach to proactively improve problems as/before they arise,” A380 chief engineer Marc Guinot told the Technical Press Briefing.

As Singapore’s experience with the aircraft grows Airbus has been able to significantly scale back its Singapore sup-port team and will soon have completely withdrawn it, and instead focus is turning to preparations for deliveries to Emirates and Qantas, both slated for August.

Of the two airlines, Emirates will receive its aircraft first, which will mark Airbus’s achievement of the first of two planned “maturity embodiment milestones” to follow service entry, while a third level of operational maturity is due to be achieved with the delivery of Air France’s first aircraft next year, with these aircraft featuring various avionics systems improvements to clean up “nuisance” problems. (Deliveries to new customers are significant milestones as the wiring configurations – to support different inflight entertainment system specifications – differs airline to airline.

In fact Airbus refers to the first aircraft from each different airline as the ‘head of version’. ) With its first aircraft now only weeks away from delivery, Qantas is well advanced in preparing for its A380s, with pilot training well underway and a maintenance engineering team currently spending three months in Toulouse undergoing training.

“It wouldn’t surprise anyone that managing the delivery and entry into service of any new aircraft is a huge undertaking for an airline,” executive general manager Qantas engineering David Cox told Australian Aviation. “When that new aircraft is also the largest passenger jet every built, makes use of so much new technology and has a range of unique requirements, then the challenge is even greater. ” Qantas has around 250 people working on introducing the A380 into service, Cox said.

“Our A380 program structure comprises 14 project streams that range from airports, airline operations and cabin product to engineering readiness, fleet specification and IT,” Cox related.

“There will always be stress points with a program as complex as this, but we are well resourced and very much focused on August for delivery and October for entry into service. ” Not only is there the complexity of such a large new type, Qantas has also had to deal with the schedule upsets caused by the delivery delays, plus managing the introduction of an all-new cabin interior product.

“Things have progressed well, and continue to do so. That said, we have had more than our share of issues come up along the way. ” But, said Cox “Our relationship with Airbus has generally been very good. Not without its tensions, of course, as Airbus has so much invested in the success of this program and has more than its share of issues to manage. ” One way that Airbus solves any issues is through the A380 Customer Review Board process. That group was formed in 2003 and includes A380 customer airlines who meet twice a year to discuss development, production and readiness issues.

“Overall, the customer review board process has been extremely beneficial, allowing member airlines to work together on issues of common interest, while closely guarding their competitive secrets,” said Cox.

“The forum has been successful in convincing Airbus to re-evaluate or redesign various aspects of the aircraft and has provided a good opportunity for us to voice any concerns relating to Airbus’s development and production plans. ” Current Qantas planning sees it taking delivery of A380 MSN014 (the future VH-OQA) in August, MSN015 (VH‑OQB) in October and MSN022 (VH-OQC) before the end of the year.

The airline is still in discussions with Airbus over the delivery of the delayed MSN026 and subsequent aircraft.

With scheduled services due to begin in October, firstly Melbourne-LA and then Sydney-LA, Qantas pilot training is well advanced.

“To support the first four aircraft, we will require 128 pilots – 32 captains, 32 first officers and 64 second officers,” Qantas chief pilot Captain Chris Manning told AA. Like the 747‑400, the airline will typically operate the aircraft on long haul ops with a crew of four – captain, first officer and two second officers.

“We have invested heavily in A380 pilot training which began in earnest in September last year, when six senior training captains completed their conversion training with Airbus in Toulouse,”said Captain Manning.

With Qantas formally taking ownership of its A380 sim last December, “A second group of senior training captains then began their conversion using Qantas’s own facilities in Sydney in January, and the local program has continued since then, with four pilots commencing training every two weeks under the eye of their senior colleagues.

“Sector training for 24 pilots then commenced in Toulouse in April using one of the Airbus test aircraft. Eighteen of these will be senior training captains and the other six ex-A330 pilots. Each will complete 10 hours flying, with six sectors training and a two-sector proficiency check,” Captain Manning detailed.

“Following delivery of our first aircraft in August, we will continue with short sector flying training, producing a pool of pilots to support the first revenue services. Ongoing training will then be undertaken during normal line operations and in the airline’s new A380 simulator. ” So how are those pilots finding their future workplace? “According to our A380 project pilot, while the A380 is complex in design, that complexity is very transparent to the pilot and flying the aircraft is very enjoyable,” Captain Manning related. “The controls are direct and responsive and give the impression you are flying a much smaller aircraft. Noise levels, both on takeoff and in cruise, are also significantly lower. ” Apart from pilot and engineer training, other Qantas A380 preparations include determining initial spares holdings and positionings, and acquiring airport ground support equipment to support the A380’s twin-deck arrangement.

“The twin-deck aircraft presents ground handlers with the challenge of essentially servicing two aircraft within the same footprint as a B747,” Qantas’s Cox noted. “Operators have had to develop high-lift trucks with sufficient elevation to reach the upper deck, but also slot twice the number of servicing trucks into the same ground footprint.

“We have worked closely with airport operators on the development of new aerobridges, and ground power and air conditioning services normally provided by the aircraft will also be provided by terminal based equipment. ” For push-back and towing the A380 Qantas is also investing in new towbarless tractors that will lift the aircraft’s nosewheel off the ground.

These are all big preparations for a big aircraft that airlines hope will have an even bigger commercial impact.

“From the Singapore experience, one thing is becoming clear, the A380 is an exceptional aircraft,” David Cox summarised. “It will deliver real fuel efficiency benefits that will benefit airlines, particularly given current record oil and fuel prices, as well as the environment in terms of reduced emissions and noise. ” After Emirates and Qantas begin taking delivery of their first A380s, the next in line for deliveries in the first half of 2009 are Air France and then Lufthansa, with deliveries to China Southern following in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, long term service support will be aided by ongoing A380 full scale fatigue testing. Testing of the A380 fatigue test aircraft has been underway in Dresden, Germany, since September 2005. To date the tests have been undertaken to 32,300 simulated flight cycles or 1. 7 times the aircraft’s design service goal. The goal is to achieve 2. 5 times the design service goal, or 47,500 simulated cycles.

Another aspect of the A380 Airbus is working on is weight. The manufacturer says the A380 entered service with its empty weight in line with 2003 predictions and airline guaranteed margins, but that a weight saving program is in placeto trim two tonnes from the aircraft.

“Further weight reductions are being studied, while maintaining the required standards for operations/maintenance,” Guinot said. Reductions could come from replacing aluminium wing skin components with aluminium lithium, and modifying flight control laws to allow some small reductions in structural weight.

Guinot also detailed that Airbus is now offering two new A380 weight options.

The standard aircraft’s max takeoff weight is 560 tonnes, while Airbus is offering a 569 tonne version for improved payload/range performance, and a 510 tonne max takeoff weight option that has a higher max zero fuel weight, sacrificing some range for better payload capacity.

Another project aimed at increasing the A380’s utility is Airbus’s drive to have the aircraft’s wake vortex turbulence separation standards relaxed. ICAO originally imposed stringent separation standards on aircraft, greater than for the 747, whose ‘heavy’ wake turbulence category Airbus aimed to match. So through 2007 Airbus conducted a range of flight tests to evaluate the A380’s wake turbulence performance involving a range of aircraft from A318s to 747s.

ICAO subsequently reduced its in-cruise separation standards for following an A380, and Airbus expects a further reduction “in the second half of 2008”, according to Guinot.

Longer term, Airbus has on the table plans to develop A380 freighter and stretched variants, but has not publicly committed to development timeframes for either.

“Everybody is focused on getting to a rate of four A380s a month,” Airbus chief operating officer – customers John Leahy told the TPB, with the “real bulk” of A380 deliveries occurring from 2013-14.

“The focus is what we’ve sold, not new A380 derivatives. ” Nonetheless, Leahy says that there is airline interest in the stretch. “Space sells, amenity sells right now,” Leahy said of A380 customers’ plans for first class suites and flatbed business class seats in the aircraft, which means that what was marketed as a 550-seater a decade ago is now entering service as a 470 or so seater. “I think we’ll see a continuation of that trend,” Leahy continued. “I have one CEO of a major international airline say that ‘I’m down around 450 or so, 470 seats by the time my marketing department got done laying out the airplane, but when I placed the order with you I thought I had a 550-seater. Well I have a need for a 550-seater, so when are you going to build the stretch? Because if you build the stretch, the -900, for the same configuration I’ve got 450 seats in, I’ll probably end up with the 550-seater I thought I was buying!’ ” But, says Leahy, “New product development on the A380 is not going to happen until we’ve got the industrialisation sorted out. ” And given that most of Airbus’s development engineers would now be devoted to the A350 XWB program, and that financial resources would be just as scarce in these days of Airbus’s Power8 cost reduction program, it may be some years yet before we see an A380F or A380-900 stretch.

On the other hand, in an environment of burgeoning fuel prices, the A380-900 may begin to find favour given its potential for having the lowest fuel burn and operating cost per seat of any airliner.

As it is Airbus promotes the standard A380’s green credentials, claiming that at its most fuel efficient it consumes just 2. 9 litres of fuel per passenger per 100km (around what a large Australian passenger car would consume per passenger with four people onboard on a long highway trip), while emitting 75g of Carbon per passenger per kilometre, compared to the European Union’s car manufacturer target of 140g per km in 2008.

Certainly the lowest fuel consumption per seat of any airliner currently is a big selling feature for the world’s biggest airliner. But due to skyrocketing cost of fuel, John Leahy in late May revised down his A380 sales target for this year from 30 to 20 units, and with Tom Enders declining to publicly nominate the A380’s break-even point – in late 2006 after the wiring problems were realised Airbus parent EADS revised break-even up from 270 to 420 – it may be some time before the A380 proves to be the financial success it is now proving to be technically.