Emirates: Airbus ‘ready to go’ with new A380 launch
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Businessman walk past an Emirates Airbus A380 during the Dubai Airshow on November 18, 2013 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
President of Gulf carrier Emirates said plans for a new and improved Airbus A380 super jumbo were "ready to go" and that it was just a matter of finalizing some commercial aspects before launch.
Emirates became the largest customer of the super-jumbo A380 after placing an order for 50 new aircraft in 2013, taking the total order book up to 140. The carrier has been working closely with European manufacturer Airbus on the details of an update on the plane.
"We are working with Airbus with regard to trying to improve the A380. There is a template on the drawing board and they are ready to go. They've just got to get the commercial aspects of it done," Emirates President Tim Clark told CNBC at the Dubai Airshow.
Clark said his carrier was also looking at updates to other types of planes, including Boeing's 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 twin-aisle planes.
"We are working with both Airbus and Boeing on the smaller twins, the (Boeing) 787 range and also the (Airbus) 350," Clark said, but he added that he wasn't trying to "marginalize" the design work from Airbus and Boeing. "They have been doing some great work. Both sides of the Atlantic they have some great airplanes," he said.
Security issues
Clark said security needs to be raised across the industry after the recent crash of a Russian jetliner in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, which is suspected of being taken down by a bomb.
Clark said he was reviewing security issues, including ramp-handling and access to its aircraft, following the crash, which killed all 224 people on board.
"These are difficult times. What happened in Egypt last week almost a little bit of a game changer, I am afraid to say, because the way that the industry has now got to look at what has happened over the last two or three years with Malaysian 370, Malaysian 17 and a number of incidents that suggest to us that security has got be raised across our industry," he said.
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