Singapore Airlines (SIA) has defended the reliability of the Airbus A380, despite recent incidents involving two of the airline's superjumbos.
"The A380 has had one of the smoothest introductions to our fleet compared to our previous experience of entry into service of new aircraft," says an SIA spokesman.
An A380 operated by the Star Alliance carrier is temporarily grounded at Zurich Airport after a rudder control system fault was encountered before a scheduled departure for Singapore yesterday.
Engineers are still looking into the problem and it is not known yet when the aircraft will be cleared for flying, says the spokesman.
On 31 January, smoke was detected in the lavatory on another A380 while the aircraft was on a flight to Singapore from Hong Kong. The aircraft landed without incident, and ground crews later found charred wiring in the aircraft's cargo hold. SIA had said there appears to have been "a short in one of the generator cables".
Referring to the incidents, SIA's spokesman says: "Technical issues do crop up from time to time, which is not unexpected even of aircraft types that have been in service for decades. It has to be noted that the A380 is the world's first superjumbo aircraft, as well as the first aircraft with a clean sheet design in a long while, so any operational disruptions that occur will naturally garner more attention."
SIA operates 11 A380s and has eight more on order, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database. The airline has carried more than 4.7 million passengers on more than 12,000 flights on its A380 fleet as of today, says the spokesman.
"In the greater scheme of things, the aircraft's dispatch reliability is comparable to any aircraft currently in service. We continue to work with Airbus on ways to improve the operational performance of the A380," he adds.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
