Aircraft

Delivery of Lufthansa's first Airbus A380 has been put back by a few weeks, but the Star Alliance carrier is unfazed by the postponement.

Lufthansa points out, however, that the delay was not prompted by the airline.

The carrier has 15 of the type on order and is expecting to put the first examples into service in summer 2010.

It has not given a specific date for entry into service and a spokesman for Lufthansa says that the amended schedule is "not a major change" but amounts to a "relatively tiny delay" of a "few weeks".

Lufthansa had been due to take the first jet in March but remains coy about the new delivery date.

While the carrier admitted recently that it was adjusting deliveries of various aircraft on order, the initial A380 was not among them. The carrier indicates that this postponement has arisen from issues at Airbus.

The airline says it is still preparing for the deployment of the first two A380s

Lufthansa is planning to configure the aircraft with around 550 seats, and the carrier is likely to operate the A380 initially to New York and Star Alliance hubs in Asia.