Virgin Gives One-Week Ultimatum

Virgin Atlantic, one of Airbus's more vocally dissatisfied A380 customers, has presented the manufacturer with "new proposals" -- and given a week for a response.

Virgin hasn't been coy with its displeasure over Airbus' tardiness, even saying cancelling its superjumbo aircraft order isn't out of the question.

Virgin declined to provide details of the proposals, or what will happen should the week pass without a repsonse from Airbus, but industry experts believe there's little doubt Sir Richard's airline is asking for more in the way of concessions for A380 delivery delays.

Airline spokesman Paul Charles told the Chicago Tribune, "We are talking with Airbus extensively. It is an important decision as to what we do."

The past few months have been very bad for Airbus. The recent announcement of a third A380 program delay -- now two years behind schedule -- prompted then CEO Christian Streiff to offer parent EADS a restructuring plan. When EADS rejected the proposal, Streiff stepped down.

EADS appointed its co-chairman Louis Gallois to Airbus' top spot, and he's begun a restructuring program of his own. EADS hopes Gallois' plan will be more palatable to all the political interests keenly worried over Airbus' fate -- and the fate of the jobs it provides on the continent.

Meanwhile, in a bit of good news - bad news for the European planemaker, Emirates, by far its largest A380 customer with an order for 45 jets says it fully plans to take delivery of all of them. That's the good news...

The bad news is Emirates, whose order is worth some $13 billion, is not really happy about it. Emirates president Tim Clark told Dow Jones Newswire "We have invested a lot in ground facilities, so we have to stick with the order for now."

To fill the capacity gap resulting from A380 delivery delays, Emirates will purchase Boeing's 777-300s.

As yet, the Dubai airline has not publicly announced any attempt to seek compensation from Airbus.

FMI: www.virgin-atlantic.com, www.airbus.com, www.emirates.com