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Delivery of the second Emirates Airbus A380 has been delayed at least several weeks due to supplier issues with interior outfitting, delaying introduction of the first daily A380 service to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

According to sources in both Dubai and Hamburg, delivery has been delayed until October 20 "at the earliest."

The second 489-seat A380, MSN013, was intended for delivery in September for introduction on the airline's direct Dubai-New York (JFK) service on October 1. The aircraft was to replace a Boeing 777-300ER on the route to establish the first daily A380 service to the United States.

Neither Airbus nor Emirates denied the potential delivery delay.

"There may be a delay," says an US based Emirates spokesperson. "We are awaiting further details from Dubai."

Per company policy, Airbus declined to discuss delivery schedules of its aircraft, though the European airframer underscored it was still on track to have 12 A380s delivered before the close of 2008. Five A380s have been delivered this year.

Airbus revised its A380 delivery targets in May from 13 in 2008, citing a slow transition of staff from Wave 1 hand-wired aircraft to Wave 2 aircraft with production wiring.

Emirates' website still shows the A380 operating the 13 hour 45 minute route daily route beginning October 1. The route is currently operated by Emirate's first A380 (A6-EDA) with 491-seats and a Boeing 777-300ER configured with 354 or 358 seats. With the delay of entry into service of the second A380, Emirates will likely be required to boost capacity to compensate for the roughly 135-seat gap between the 777-300ER and the A380.

According to a source at the Dubai based airline, daily service is now potentially slated to commence on October 26, the same day as Qatar Airways, Emirates' regional competitor, is set to begin its daily non-stop JFK service from Doha using a 777-300ER.

Supplier issues of key items like seats, galleys and lavatories have impacted both Airbus and Boeing customers.  

Flight reported in June that buyer-furnished-equipment had delayed Boeing 777 aircraft for both Emirates and Qatar Airways.

Airbus has been impacted as well with "roughly 8% of widebody deliveries" facing "some delay because of problems with equipment purchased directly from suppliers," the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Airbus had anticipated delivering three A380s during the September, though with the delay, it appears that the first for QANTAS' and the sixth for Singapore Airlines will be the only September deliveries.

September will mark the first time Airbus delivers two A380s in the same month.

The aircraft in question first flew April 1 of this year in Toulouse and was transferred to Hamburg-Finkenwerder on April 4 where it has remained for painting, rewiring and outfitting of its custom interior, including two shower spas.

This story is part of a FlightBlogger comprehensive Airbus A380 update covering the remaining deliveries for 2008. Image courtesy of David Barrie.

With the final re-bid tanker proposals from Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS expected later this fall, speculation abounds that Boeing is considering offering the larger 767-400ER in place of the 767-200ERX.

The FlightBlogger art department decided to peek into the looking glass and see what a 767-400ER tanker (KC-764) would actually look like. The point of the (extremely rough) diagram is to illustrate one of the key challenges a 767-400ER platform would face. The -400ER is 42.3 feet longer than the -200ERX. The takeoff run -400ER at MTOW would be significantly longer than the -200ERX and with the addition of the refueling boom, the rotation angle could be a significant factor as well. I've (roughly) estimated that the 767-200ER would have 7.5 degree rotation angle before tail strike, but the 767-400ER would only have 4 degrees nose-up before striking the tail on the runway.

Though, Boeing has already proven itself adept at compensating for this by adding tail strike protection into the 777-300ER, reducing the aircraft's take off roll by 600 feet.

According to our friends at Leeham, "The Amended [Draft Request For Proposals] now ranks runway performance as a "3" in importance (on a scale of 1 to 3, with one being most important)." So, it may be a moot point when it's all said and done.

The original KC-767 was set to have the -400ER (777-style) flight deck, so right out of the box Boeing is able to deliver an enhanced flight deck to the USAF.

So why not choose the 767-400ER all along?

Boeing made the claim that the footprint of the tanker was key to basing flexibility. More importantly, Boeing followed the original terms of the RFP, which said it wouldn't give extra credit for a larger tanker, whereas Northrop/EADS went beyond by giving "more" to the USAF.

Looking at this through a commercial lens for a moment, the 767-200ERX was to be the platform for which the KC-767 was born from. Boeing was able to immediately turn that product into a commercial application to avoid the necessity of an ITAR waiver. They wouldn't have been able to do it as easily if the KC-767 was first.

With that inspiration in mind, the -200ERX was to live its life as a freighter in the 767-200LRF, bolstering the 767 line beyond one tanker per month. If Boeing was to round out its freighter family, then making a 767-400ER freighter, which would've been the foundation for the KC-764, Boeing would've stepped on the toes of the 777F, hardly a good product strategy.

If Boeing offers the 767-400ER, what might EADS and Northrop do? Instead of using the A330-200, the NG/EADS team might offer the A330-200F. What's the benefit? Currently, NG/EADS has to convert every A330-200 to a freighter/tanker configuration from a passenger aircraft. Switching to the A330-200F, which wasn't around when the A330-200 was first offered to the USAF, saves sizable time and cost in production. In 2007, Northrop said that it would "inevitably" switch to the A330-200F anyway; a claim Northrop later backed away from, but never denied saying it.
 
Also, the A330-200 is fitted with twin General Electric CF6 engines, though if the A330-200F is offered, NG/EADS will likely switch to Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines that are only available along with Rolls Royce Trent 700. NG/EADS won't be offering non-US built engines.

With PW4000 engines on both Boeing and Airbus tankers, does this increase the chances of a split buy?

Wait, I've gone cross-eyed. This tanker makes my head hurt.

Pratt & Whitney has completed the first phase of flight testing for its Geared Turbofan demonstrator as it prepares to fly the engine with Airbus in September.

The GTF demonstrator amassed 43.5 hours over 12 flights that demonstrated the handling characteristics and overall performance of the engine up to 40,000 feet and .85 mach, exploring the full flight regime up to redline at 30,000 lbs of thrust.

The test programme, which began 11 July, included a robust package of accelerations and decelerations, high angle of attack takeoffs and other maneuvers, including wind up turns, as well as the starter assist and windmill relight capability of the engine.

Phase one focused on short range aircraft performance in preparation for applying the lessons learned to the Mitusbishi Regional Jet and Bombardier CSeries, both expected to enter service in 2013.

The engine "met our prediction of what the ground to altitude relationship would be" and P&W has an improved understanding of the "geared components in terms of optimizing the engine for fuel [burn]," says Bob Saia vice-president of next generation product family.

P&W achieved "near double-digit" improvements in fuel burn on the demonstrator and validates the 12-15% improvement P&W hopes to deliver in service. In addition, Saia adds that P&W is "on the path to hit the maintenance cost values we've committed to for ANA and Lufthansa," launch customers for the MRJ and CSeries.

P&W identifies three objectives for the two-month, 75-hour flight test programme with Airbus, which is set to kick-off in the second half of September on a A340-600 test bed. First, validate the data from the 747 test bed by repeating phase one conditions. Second, explore the acoustic characteristics, not a done on phase one because of the older and significantly louder P&W JT9Ds on the 747. Finally, "work closely with Airbus" to determine the ideal design for mounting engine components on the pylon to improve the aerodynamic characteristics.

The engine is scheduled for handover to Airbus during the 3rd week of August.

Airbus has distanced itself from any suggestion that its role in GTF flight testing implies future usage on a commercial platform, though Airbus Executive Vice President for Programmes Tom Williams said recently it would take 24 to 30-months to develop a GTF-powered A320 if the airframer decides to do so.

P&W says it is "on track" for the new PurePower engine family and expects detailed design work to begin when the demonstrator flight testing is complete. The non-geared PW810 engine core will begin ground testing in mid-2009, followed in December by testing for the MRJ's PW1217G and 1st quarter 2010 for the CSeries PW1524G. For the PW1000Gs, twin 40-50 hour flight test programmes are planned for the mid 3rd quarter of 2010 and "a few months later" on the PW1217G and PW1524G respectively.

Posted as written for Flight International

Airbus SAS will provide a briefing hosted by Tom Enders and John Leahy at 11:00 GMT (6 AM ET). A large order announcement is expected at the conclusion of the event.

Follow it here for liveblogged coverage.

Transcript continued after the jump.

LONDON -- Good Morning America, Good Afternoon Europe! Before things really kick off in the next fews days I wanted to outline what may (or may not) happen at the show. As I peer into my magic eight-ball, here's what I've come up with.
 

*Fly Dubai not included

Airbus
The A350 XWB and A320 are likely to have a very good week. Asiana is very likely to settle their mid-size wide body order, which will probably be split between 787s and A350s. The A380/747 battle should be wrapped up by year's end, so likely nothing above 350 seats for Asiana on this go-round. The A350 XWB should see a new leasing customer as well.

Once again, we're looking at a heavily Gulf weighted orderbook for both Airbus and Boeing. Emirates is likely to book an order with Airbus. I doubt it's more A380, so filling the gap until the A350-900 arrives would point to A330s as an interim aircraft to go along with it's large fleet of 777-300ERs which were topped up at Dubai last November. Qatar and Airbus press conference planned and unless they're adding more A380s, this order could be on the other end of the capacity spectrum with A320s. Though, if the order is for narrow body aircraft, this could be a sizable blow for Bombardier which is hoping that Qatar will be a launch customer for CSeries. Other signs point to Etihad making a big narrow and wide body order which could be split between Airbus and Boeing. Gulfair will likely be a widebody order and they could probably get Airbus to give them an A340-600.

Boeing
777F will be part of Monday's events though not until late in the day with first flight coming late Monday in the UK. As far as 777 orders go at the show, British Airways might be the only major European airline to book an order if those 777-300ERs pan out.

With four orders to go until the 787 officially breaks the 900 mark, what are the chances of seeing 1000 this week? Boeing hasn't announced a 787 customer since April and they've always said they don't hold orders for big air shows unlike Airbus, but 1000 is a far sexier number than 900. Orders from Asiana, Etihad and ILFC could push it above 1000, though an order for 23 and 35 787s for unidentified customers could be one or two of those three airlines. At the very least, I'd put my money on being well into 900 by the end of next week.

Keep an eye out here on Monday and Tuesday morning for coverage of Scott Carson and Pat Shanahan's briefings respectively.

On the narrow-body side Boeing's order book has 296 unidentified orders for 737s with 10 orders greater than 10 with half of those above 30. If it hasn't already been booked, the new UAE low cost carrier Fly Dubai is likely kicking off with a massive narrow body order for 737s or A320s.

Permit me for a moment to stretch the imagination a bit here, but what if the BoCo surprises everyone with a new narrow body concept? Airlines have been screaming for a new aircraft in the 120-200 seat category, but Boeing has been pushing incremental improvements like lighter weight interiors on the 737 and keeping their cards close to their vest. Airbus, by contrast, has been quite out front with upgrades to the A320 family with the potential of a GTF engine and winglets.

Is this Boeing's chance to blast ahead in this market with a major surprise? The new 2008 Current Market Forecast calls for a transition to larger, more fuel efficient aircraft. With this in mind, wouldn't a 737-700 to 757-200 range/capacity market be ripe for the picking. It would snuff CSeries in its debut, though there are plenty of reasons why this isn't happening, but I'm musing.

If we assume for a moment that launching a product in the downside of a cycle is the way to be first out of the gate when the industry takes off again then Farnborough could be quite interesting.

Bombardier
The last big air show, Singapore, Bombardier used the last big show (Singapore) to receive authorization to offer the CSeries, the company could use Farnborough to launch the aircraft officially. Bombardier is clearly pushing ahead with design work and development of the new high and hot 130XT indicates that at least one customer is pushing for these requirements.

So who is the likely launch customer? Signs point to China Southern and Shanghai, who are rumored to be meeting the CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) on July 14 to receive authorization to purchase the the type, however, of the four initially identified customers, only Qatar is in a financial position to make a big investment right now.

Also, Bombardier will select a final assembly location for CSeries by July 15 (Tuesday). Mirabel, outside of Montreal, is competing with Kansas City, Missouri for the CSeries final assembly facility.

As one last note on the CSeries (and MRJ) front, the GTF should be making its first flight on the 747SP test bed next week too.

Also, I would not be surprised in the slightest if we see the CRJ1000 fly this week as well.

Embraer
We should be seeing more about the Legacy 450 & 500. Which would fit in their overall strategy for biz jets. Of the entire B.A.B.E., Embraer may be in the most solid position with record backlog, orders and deliveries coming out of Sao Jose dos Campos. Though, questions of complacency could be fair game if CSeries goes live and Boeing and Airbus begin to add definition to replacement studies.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Office of the Secretary of Defense, not the Air Force, will oversee a rebid of the long and storied Air Force tanker competition, citing Congressional sources.

The plan, which hands control to the Pentagon's top acquisition chief and sets up a dedicated source-selection committee, indicates that senior civilians at the Defense Department have lost confidence in the Air Force's ability to manage the contract.

The $35 billion KC-45A refueling contract will again pit the Northrop Grumman/EADS against Boeing. Reports have yet to indicate if Boeing is again offering the KC-767, though an expedited acquisition process would indicate Boeing is likely to offer the 767 as the platform for the KC-45A instead of the larger 777 or even 787.

This is a breaking story and will be updated as details become available.

GAO Statement

Is the airline crisis of 2008 worse than the economic aftermath of September 11, 2001?

Yes, absolutely.

9/11 was a crisis of confidence in the safety of air travel. Airlines simply couldn't fill their planes. The 2008 crisis is far more serious. The psychological injury of 9/11 has since healed and empty planes and cheap gas has given way to very full planes and the most expensive gas in US history.

The crisis cuts even deeper now because access to new sources of revenue aren't available when planes are already full. Instead we see higher ticket prices or new fees on first bags, second bags, legroom, food, curb-side check-in and soon seatbelt usage (snark). Eventually, the price of flying will become so prohibitively high that the bottom of the market may just fall out completely. The upper level of tolerance for ticket prices is not clear yet, but it will run out eventually, and when it does leisure travel is going to take a major hit, only further slowing the economy.

Just as 9/11 saw the retirement of 737-200s, 727s, 747-200s, DC-9s, 10s and L1011s, the crisis we find ourselves in today has 737 classics, the remaining DC-9s and soon MD-80s on the chopping block. Also, once the new generation of mid-size wide-body aircraft enter service at the end of next year, the older 767s will be retired.

So, as the fuel crisis for airlines only gets worse, the three options (the good, the bad and the ugly) merging, cutting capacity or declaring bankruptcy is the only way forward.

Struggling airlines invariably mean struggling manufacturers. Or does it?

The big four (Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Embraer) - B.A.B.E. - consider it coined - all have huge backlogs to fall back on if orders dry up.  However this crisis should give them all pause to ask themselves if their product lines are prepared for the painful market dynamics ahead. All would likely answer yes, but here's a few thoughts for the road ahead.

This post was intended to be my final post from France, however battery life and flight departure times got the best of me. After the A380 Production Update I posted two weeks ago, I wanted to provide an inside look at the Final Assembly Line (FAL) of the world's largest commercial passenger aircraft.


Approaching the massive building at the north end of Blagnac airport, what becomes immediately apparent is the shear scale of the venture being undertaken. I couldn't help but feel like something big lives here...and it does.

Walking through an unassuming door into the cavernous facility, my attention was immediately drawn to the nose fuselage section of MSN025 an Emirates A380 destined for delivery in 2009. It arrived in Toulouse on April 23 and was waiting patiently in front of the body join tooling that was surrounding MSN034 (Singapore Airlines), which, at the time, was receiving its wings.

The parts for MSN034 had arrived in the same convoy in late April as well. The aircraft has had its horizontal stabilizer installed and was awaiting its pylons, winglets or vertical tail to be joined.

Off to the left of the nose was MSN025's aft fuselage surrounded by scaffolding undergoing pre-integration. It was positioned in front of the port wing of MSN019, another A380 for Singapore Airlines which, according to Airbus, was undergoing rewiring in preparation for its move outside to the flight line.

CONTINUED BELOW