Airbus, the European jet plane company, delivered on Monday the 6,000th aircraft it has made to the airline Emirates.Adel al-Redha, deputy chief executive of Emirates, picked up the giant A-380 plane in the German city of Hamburg. His Dubai-based company has ordered 58 of the big, two-level jets, the world's largest airliner.
Airbus said it was the 25th overall of the A-380 series to be completed and the eighth for Emirates. Tom Enders, Airbus chief executive, said the planemaker aimed to ramp up output of the huge planes to 20 aircraft this year. The A-380 was dogged by delays, mainly in finding an efficient way to install customised electrical wiring in each aircraft.
Enders said Airbus would be laying off 1,000 workers with temporary contracts to help with A-380 production in Hamburg. "They were hired for the period when we were in great difficulty and needed extra manpower," he said, saying their dismissal proved the A-380 programme was running smoothly at last. Including all its smaller jets, Airbus now currently manufactures about 500 aircraft annually.
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