Free Republic

VIRGIN Atlantic, the UK airline owned by Sir Richard Branson, is to defer its order for the new Airbus A380 by four years. In a further blow to the troubled aircraft maker - owned by European group EADS - Virgin, which had ordered six of the new "super-jumbos" for delivery in 2009, now wants to delay their arrival till 2013. There had been speculation that Virgin would ditch the A380 altogether, but the firm now wants the aircraft to prove itself in commercial service for several years before it puts its own into operation. Virgin is instead planning to extend...

LONDON The biggest buyer of the world's largest airliner, Emirates, said Friday that it would send its own audit team to Airbus before entering talks to address the A380 superjumbo's two-year delay and the fact the plane is 5.5 tons overweight. "We have not yet engaged with Airbus as regards not only the delay but the fact it is overweight," the president of Emirates, Tim Clark, said. Clark was in London to open a new lounge at Heathrow Airport designed for the A380, which will now not see one of the planes until the third quarter of 2008. He said...

Emirates and Virgin in new £170m compensation demands as deliveries of A380s are delayed again Emirates, the leading launch customer for the Airbus A380 super jumbo, is demanding £150m in compensation for delays to the crisis-hit programme. Tim Clark, president of Dubai-based airline Emirates, which has ordered 45 A380s, made the claim in talks with Airbus management last week following the announcement of a third postponement of deliveries of the world's largest passenger jet. It is also understood that Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic is claiming more than £20m in compensation for delays in its order of six A380s, while...