Airbus sees delayed A380 jet certified by December 13

Airbus expects its delayed A380 superjumbo to receive technical certification by December 13, a senior company official said in remarks published in a French newspaper yesterday.

"We are now confident on delivering the A380 superjumbo as per the new dates," Keith Stonestreet, product marketing director of Airbus' A380 Marketing Division, told Gulf News, adding the jet was undergoing a final series of tests with Rolls-Royce engines.

"By December 13, we expect to receive the Air Worthiness Certificate from both US regulators, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)," he said.

Deliveries of the A380, the world's biggest commercial airliner, are two years behind schedule, partly due to problems with installing wiring on the aircraft.

Airbus parent EADS said on Tuesday it had had no fresh order cancellations for the A380 since FedEx Express, a unit of FedEx Corp., terminated an order for 10 of the A380-800F freighter version this month.

A delegation from Emirates airline, the biggest buyer of the plane, visited Airbus manufacturing plants last week to assess progress on re-cabling the aircraft.

"Our engineers have returned from Toulouse. We are evaluating the audit information internally," the paper quoted an Emirates spokesperson as saying.

Emirates has 43 of the $300 million planes on order.