Lufthansa Receives Its First Airbus A380, but the Airliner’s Delivery Rate Remains Behind Earlier Projections
Airbus did its best to show a brave face during the May 19 ceremony marking the delivery of the first
The top management of Airbus and Lufthansa were all smiles at the delivery of the German flagcarrier’s first A380 on May 19, but the airframer faces an uphill struggle to get its deliveries of the superjumbo back on track and is not expecting to break even on the program until 2015.
The top management of Airbus and Lufthansa were all smiles at the delivery of the German flagcarrier’s first A380 on May 19, but the airframer faces an uphill struggle to get its deliveries of the superjumbo back on track and is not expecting to break even on the program until 2015.

Airbus did its best to show a brave face during the May 19 ceremony marking the delivery of the first Lufthansa Airlines A380. For despite the festive atmosphere and the fact that Lufthansa had become the fifth airline to accept delivery of the superjumbo, the struggles the program has experienced couldn’t go completely ignored. 

The ceremony marked delivery of the 28th A380 to roll off the final assembly line in Toulouse, France. Airbus continues to produce A380s at only half the rate it had projected it would by this time. The company delivered only 10 A380s last year and this year its projection for 20 deliveries includes three airplanes it had originally intended to deliver last year. Including the first delivery to the German flag carrier, Airbus has delivered five A380s so far this year.