Airbus A380s will be delivered six months late

Airbus faces compensation claims from airlines that have placed orders for the A380, the world's largest aircraft, after it admitted that there would be delays of up to six months in deliveries.

Airbus faces compensation claims from airlines that have placed orders for the A380, the world's largest aircraft, after it admitted that there would be delays of up to six months in deliveries.

The delays affect the European planemaker's major customers Emirates, Air France, Singapore Airlines and Qantas. Emirates is the biggest customer, with 43 super-jumbos on order.

Airbus confirmed the delays yesterday after the Australian airline Qantas said the delivery of the first of its 12 A380s had been put back by six months to April 2007.

Geoff Dixon, the chief executive of Qantas, said: "This is disappointing, given that we have met all of Airbus's deadlines for Qantas specifications." He said Qantas would now be seeking compensation from Airbus, under the terms of its contract. He assured that there would be no impact on schedules or capacity as the airline was developing contingency plans, such as delaying the retirement of some aircraft, redirecting capacity and bringing forward the delivery of other aircraft on order.

The announcement came five weeks after the super-jumbo's maiden flight on 27 April, and after Airbus warned of the possibility of delays last month. They are a setback for the manufacturer, which is counting on the A380 to stay ahead of its great US rival, Boeing. The 555-seat double-decker plane will overtake Boeing's 747 as the world's largest commercial plane. In contrast, Boeing is developing smaller planes which can better service smaller airports, such as the 787 Dreamliner.

A spokeswoman for Airbus said the delays came after a revision of the production plan, which also affected suppliers, and were also partly due to the airlines' specification requests. She said this kind of delay was not unusual in the industry, adding: "A new type of aircraft is coming on to the market, the biggest aircraft in the world - [the delays] are not very exceptional. What is important is that it is of the right technical definition." She confirmed that Airbus would be discussing compensation with the airlines.

Airbus, which is 80 per cent owned by the European aerospace and defence group EADS and 20 per cent by Britain's BAE Systems, has spent €10.7bn (£7.2bn) developing the A380.

Singapore Airlines, which is set to be the first carrier to fly the super-jumbo, will now have its first aircraft delivered towards the end of next year, also six months behind schedule. It has ordered 10 with an option on another 15.

Chew Choon Seng, the chief executive, indicated yesterday that he would demand compensation for the delay. "There are contractual obligations which we will have to jointly address," he said.