Emirates forges ahead with A380 one year on

The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger airline in the world, capable of seating 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in an all economy-class configuration.

Features of the highly-touted aircraft include two showers in first class, lie-flat beds, and a bar and lounge. Airbus says the A380 also reduces the effects of travel as it produces 50% less cabin noise than a Boeing 747 and has greater cabin air pressure.

Despite its high price tag ($327m at list prices), many airlines queued up to order the A380, in hope that the aircraft's huge capacity and relatively fuel-efficient engines would be a more cost-effective way of serving high-volume routes.

Emirates buys 58 A380s

All told, Emirates has purchased 58 A380s from Airbus, making it the largest single customer for the aircraft. Emirates has justified its order saying that the A380 would maximize its use of scarce takeoff and landing slots at crowded airports like Heathrow.

But Emirates' deal with Airbus got off to a rocky start as it was forced to wait nearly two years for delivery of its first A380, due to production problems. In return, Airbus reportedly paid Emirates up to $110m in compensation for the delays.

Emirates eventually received its first A380 in July last year - flying journalists on the superjumbo from Germany to Dubai on the delivery flight - and launched its inaugural flight to New York from Dubai International Airport on August 1.

However, about one month later Emirates grounded the A380 on the Dubai-New York route for a brief period, citing unspecified technical reasons.

In December, an A380 flight to New York was forced to turn back due to an electrical fault, after passengers had already waited 14 hours while Emirates fixed a fuel-pump leak. In the following months, other problems arose that forced the airline to take the aircraft out of service for a total of 500 hours.

In response to these events, Emirates officials reportedly gave a 46-page presentation at Airbus' headquarters in Tolouse, documenting problems related to heat-damaged power cables, defective engines and numerous malfunctions.

At the time, an Emirates spokeswoman downplayed the airline's concerns by saying: 'Technical issues are expected with new aircraft, particularly one that uses many new technologies,' adding that the airline's confidence in the A380 'remains unchanged - it is an excellent aircraft. Feedback from our customers thus far has been very positive'.

Later in March, Emirates announced that it was redeploying its two A380s currently flying to JFK, but was emphatic in pointing out that it was shifting the double-decker superjumbos to Toronto and Bangkok due to falling passenger demand and not to any problems with the aircraft.

Emirates is currently serving JFK with a smaller Boeing 777 model, but has pledged to once again use the A380 on the route when air travel picks up.

In a report issued earlier this year, the International Air Transport Association said it expects that losses among Middle East carriers will deepen to $1.5bn in 2009, and noted that long-haul services are likely to be affected the most.

In May, Emirates reported that its profits had nosedived 72% for its financial year ending March 31 2009, but it is still profitable, closing at Dhs1.49bn. It also saw a 10% increase in revenues, to Dhs41.9bn.

Despite the setbacks that Emirates has faced in its deployment of the A380, the carrier has no plans to modify its order with Airbus. In the coming years, Emirates is expected to add a further 53 super-jumbos to its fleet.

Currently, Emirates has five A380s in operation, which fly from Dubai to Bangkok, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland, and London Heathrow. Flights to Seoul are set for later this year and Paris in February 2010.

In the company's recent announcement of its plans for the new A380 service to Paris, Emirates president Tim Clark said: 'This is really great news for us to bring the A380 to Paris and is a result of such encouraging sales in and out of Paris Charles de Gaulle.

'Our plans to introduce this exceptional aircraft have been accelerated by almost a year which, in the current economic climate, is a major achievement.'