Emirates to widen wing checks on A380 fleet

Emirates is the largest global customer of the A380, with 20 of the aircraft across its fleetstry leaders on the global stage. Ali Haider / EPA

Emirates Airline will swap its A380 superjumbos for other aircraft as it checks for wing cracks in response to tighter European aviation safety rules.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) yesterday issued a directive requiring inspections for all 68 of the Airbus planes currently in service.

The directive widens checks that the EASA ordered last month on 20 aircraft.

Emirates is the largest global customer of the 525-seater jet, with 20 of the aircraft in its fleet.

The airline said it was fully complying with the new rules and flights were still operating as scheduled. It would replace its A380 planes with other aircraft types as they were inspected, it said.

The airline uses its A380s to connect Dubai with London, Sydney, New York, Bangkok and other big cities.

"To date, we have inspected four aircraft," said a spokesman in response to the directive. "The directive poses no impact on Emirates operations. The aircraft remain fully airworthy and pose no risk to flight safety as affirmed by EASA and Airbus. The safety of our passengers and crew is our highest priority."

The latest ruling extends the EASA's previous order for checks on 20 A380s, having found a series of cracks in wings that could "potentially affect the structural integrity" of the aircraft if they were not fixed.

Hailed as a change in global air travel at its launch in 2005, the double-deck, wide-body aircraft has become a hit with airlines for its ability to fly more passengers at a lower fuel cost. Emirates has been one of the A380's biggest fans, with 90 of the aircraft ordered.

Tim Clark, the Emirates chief executive, was quoted as saying as recently as December in a German newspaper that he was keen to order even more A380s.

Singapore Airlines is the second-biggest A380 customer with 15, followed by Qantas with 12, Lufthansa with eight, Air France with six, Korean Air with five and China Southern with two.

Qantas announced yesterday that it had temporarily grounded an A380 after finding 36 new cracks.

However, it said that the cracks were of a different type from those that prompted the EASA's previous directive.

An Airbus spokesman said yesterday the EASA's action was a "continuation of the previous airworthiness directive, to include the aircraft that had not reached the flight cycle threshold".

The previous EASA directive applied only to aircraft that had flown more than 1,300 flight cycles, defined as one take-off and landing.

In a statement, the EASA said its latest ruling was aimed at preventing "any unsafe conditions".

"EASA and Airbus are working closely together to ensure the continuing safe operations of the A380 aircraft type," the statement said.

Airbus had established a repair scheme if cracks were found during the inspection, the EASA said. Both the regulator and the plane maker were working on a long-term fix to be defined by this summer, it said.

The first cracks were discovered in a Qantas A380 that experienced engine problems flying over Indonesia in 2010. But the EASA said last month that cracking had been discovered in other planes.

The problem relates to brackets that link the A380's wing ribs to the wing's skin.

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