Airbus A380 Production » Air France

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#16)

Oliver Gigacz — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:45:50 +0000

Thursday saw the roll out Air France’s sixth A380 (MSN064).

MSN064 took four months to complete Final Assembly with all major componets arriving in Toulouse by late March. First flight is currently scheduled for early September. Delivery to Air France will be in Q2 2011.

Today, Lufthansa’s fifth A380 (MSN061) will perform her first flight, after a months long stay on the Toulouse flightline.

Image Courtesy of Schiefi

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#10)

Oliver Gigacz — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:45:24 +0000

Air France’s fourth A380 (MSN049) has begun Cabin Flight Testing in Hamburg.

Tests flights will continue over the coming weeks, with delivery of the frame in late August.

Image Courtesy of Gruß Marvin

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#9)

Oliver Gigacz — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:53:39 +0000

Last Friday marked the first time that Airbus delivered two separate A380s on the same day. The A380s in question were MSN041 (Lufthansa #2) and MSN051 (Singapore Airlines #11).

With these deliveries, the total number of A380s in airlines service is 33 (11 each for Emirates and Singapore Airlines, 6 for Qantas, 3 for Air France and 2 for Lufthansa)

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#3)

Oliver Gigacz — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:01:11 +0000

Late last week, Emirates eleventh A380 (MSN030) was delivered to the airline at a ceremony in Toulouse.

This now makes Emirates the largest operator of the A380 with eleven SuperJumbo’s in its fleet, while Singapore Airlines has ten, Qantas has six, Air France has three and Lufthansa has one.

Late last week also saw the return of MSN052 (Air France #5) to the flightline. MSN052 had been spending the last month or two in the flightline hangars where she had some Final Assembly work done.

Images Courtesy of Jean-Claude MAURAN and David BARRIE

A380 Production Update: July 2010 (#2)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:01:02 +0000

To finish the week off, Here are a couple of updates from the Final Assembly Line…

MSN064 (Air France #6) – Has been completed, Just waiting for engines to be installed.
MSN065 (Singapore Airlines #13) – Has been completed, All four engines attached, Roll out very soon.
MSN070 (Lufthansa #8) – Currently in first stage of Final Assembly.

MSN071 (Singapore Airlines #14) – Has been completed, Just waiting for engines to be installed.

Image Courtesy of A380Spotter

A380 Production Update: June 2010 (#13)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:49:35 +0000

Last month we managed to get a picture of MSN035′s (Korean Air #1) tail in Final Assembly. Well yesterday, one of our spotters managed to catch a bit of MSN035.

The picture suggests that she has had her flaps and slats installed, and also some belly fairing. She is scheduled to leave Final Assembly in September.

MSN049 (Air France #4) has been rolled out of the Outfitting hangars, But due to the summer break she wont be delivered to late August or early September.

MSN050 (Qantas #8) will now transfer to Hamburg next week.

A380 Production Update: June 2010 (#5)

Oliver Gigacz — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:46:28 +0000

With Convoy #10/2011 finishing it’s long journey, Convoy #11/2010 has just been announced. It is scheduled to begin on June 21st and finish June 24th. The convoy will be carrying complete frame for a yet unknown MSN.

One of our friendly sources has supplied us with a complete list of frames currently in the build stages of production

Frames that have Completed Build Stages: (These will be the next frames to be Convoyed)
MSN031 - China Southern #1
MSN036 - China Southern #2
MSN039 - Korean Air #2
MSN054 - China Southern #3
MSN059 - Korean Air #3
MSN060 - Emirates #16
MSN067 - Air France #7

Frames Currently in Build Stages:
MSN063 - Qantas #11
MSN068 - Korean Air #4
MSN072 - Lufthansa #9
MSN074 - Qantas #12
MSN075 - Korean Air #5
MSN076 - Singapore Airlines #15
MSN077 - Emirates #17
MSN078 - Malaysia Airlines #1
MSN079 - Singapore Airlines #16
MSN080 - Emirates #18
MSN082 - Singapore Airlines #17

A380 Production Update: May 2010 (#16)

Oliver Gigacz — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:46:28 +0000

A photo has been uploaded to flickr which is giving us a good look at what is going on in the “Stage 2″ area of Final Assembly.

The three frames that can be seen in this photo are MSN065 (Singapore Airlines #13), MSN064 (Air France #6) and MSN071 (Singapore Airlines #14). All of these frames still have quite a lot of work to go, So we won’t expect to see them on the flightline for a month or two.

We can confirm that MSN057 (Emirates #15) will be the next A380 to transfer to Hamburg, as MSN052 (Air France #5) still has part of it’s APU missing and MSN055 (Qantas #9) is missing at least one escape slide.

Images Courtesy of matze-man

A380 Production Update: May 2010 (#14)

Oliver Gigacz — Thu, 27 May 2010 01:39:27 +0000

This week has seen the roll out of three A380′s from the Final Assembly Line. This is great news, as the previous roll out (MSN056) was almost two months ago.

MSN052 (Air France #5) is one of the three, and was rolled out early in week. Earlier this year MSN052 was put into short term storage at the request of Air France. But now she is back on track.

Also rolling out this week, was MSN057 (Emirates #15). If you can remember earlier in the year MSN057 spent a few weeks on the flightline, while waiting for a spot in second stage Final Assembly.

And last but not least, MSN055 (Qantas #9) which was rolled out late yesterday evening.

MSN055 is the frame on the right.

All Images are Courtesy of DigitalAirliners.com
P.S. There will be more detailed information on each of these frames next week.

A380 Production Update: May 2010 (#8)

Oliver Gigacz — Sat, 15 May 2010 06:49:59 +0000

A lot of people have been asking on the forum about the delivery dates for certain frames, So to quickly answer all those questions here are the delivery dates that we know of.

MSN041 (Lufthansa #2) – June 2010
MSN030 (Emirates #11) – July 2010
MSN044 (Lufthansa #3) – July 2010
MSN046 (Emirates #12) – August 2010
MSN042 (Emirates #13) – September 2010
MSN049 (Air France #4) – September 2010
MSN048 (Lufthansa #4) – October 2010
MSN056 (Emirates #14) – October 2010
MSN047 (Qantas #7) – November 2010
MSN057 (Emirates #15) – December 2010
MSN050 (Qantas #8) – January 2011
MSN055 (Qantas #9) – January 2011
MSN061 (Lufthansa #5) – January 2011

All Dates are Subject to Change

(The delivery dates for MSN035, MSN052, MSN058, MSN062, MSN064, MSN065, MSN066, MSN069, MSN071 will be posted soon)