Summary In November 2011, Airbus announced a six-month delay in the first delivery of the A350.
PARIS (AFP) - Finnair, the launch company in Europe for Airbus lightweight long-haul A350, said it would receive the first aircraft only in the second half of 2015 owing to production delays.
Airbus, however, said there were no new delays in the project and that the first aircraft would be delivered to Qatar Airways in the second half of 2014 as currently foreseen.
"We have 11 in firm orders but now eight options instead of four options," said Kati Ihamaki, Finnair s vice president for sustainable development.
"The problem is the first delivery will be not in the beginning of 2015 but in the second part of 2015 because (of) delays of production," she said on the sidelines of a news conference in Paris.
Ihamaki said Finnair originally expected the first aircraft already at the end of 2014, and while it understood the delay in the delivery of the new aircraft, the airline was eager to introduce them into its fleet as they were key for its Asian development strategy.
Like Boeing s Dreamliner, the Airbus A350 is to be made mainly of lightweight composite materials to save fuel, which can currently account for more than half of overall airline operating costs.
Airbus says the A350, a two-aisle aircraft capable of holding 250 to 350 passengers depending on the version, will offer 25 percent fuel savings compared to its current long-range competitor.
The European aircraft manufacturer said, however, that there has not been any change in its delivery schedule for Finnair for two years.
In November 2011, Airbus announced a six-month delay in the first delivery of the A350 to the first half of 2014. In July 2012, it said there would be another delay of about 3 months to the second half of the 2014.
Finnair, in which the Finnish government owns a majority stake, is heavily orientated towards the growing market for long-haul traffic between the Europe and Asia.
Javier Roig, Finnair s sales director for southern Europe, said the airline s ambition was to double the number of Asian destinations it served to 206 by 2020. "Today, all of our efforts are concentrated on Asia," he said.
Last year the airline carried eight million passengers and earned a net profit of 12 million euros.
