“A380 troubles not our fault,” insist IFE Big Two October 5, 2006 – AS Airbus wrestles to get A380 production back on track, IFE providers Panasonic and Thales insist that the cabling complexities behind the delays should not be laid squarely at their door. In June Airbus revealed that the A380 production flow was being disrupted by bottlenecks in the definition, manufacturing and installation of cabin electrical systems and their harnesses. At the time it was expected that the problems would limit A380 deliveries to nine aircraft next year. Since then, however, Airbus has sunk deeper into the mire, announcing earlier this week that the first delivery, to Singapore Airlines, would not be for another 12 months, with 13 aircraft to follow in 2008. “The amount of work to be done to finalise the installation of the electrical harnesses into the forward and rear section of the fuselage had been underestimated,” the beleaguered manufacturer said on Tuesday. “Beyond the complexity of the cable installation, the root cause of the problem is the fact that the 3D digital mock-up, which facilitates the design of the electrical harnesses, was implemented late and the people working on it were on a learning curve.” Responding today to suggestions that the cabling for the TopSeries i-5000 IFE systems was one of the main causes of the A380’s woes, Thales Avionics communications VP Lori Krans minced no words: “The cabling they are talking about has nothing to do with Thales.” For Panasonic Avionics, which is supplying its eX2 for the A380, strategic marketing director David Bruner was less blunt but nevertheless made it clear that the finger should not be pointed at IFE. “The issue lies with the cabin wiring as a whole – for the galleys, lavatories, lighting and other services as well as IFE,” he said. “The wiring is complex to start with, and the situation has been made worse by the number of options on offer and the high degree of customisation required by some airlines.” Apart from the tremors that the debacle is sending through Airbus, slippage of the first delivery to October 2007 means that the world will have to wait that much longer to see the exotic interiors promised by the likes of Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Meantime, as some customers threaten cancellations and manoeuvre for compensation, others are more phlegmatic. “We understand from Airbus that we won’t get our first A380 until August 2008, around two years late,” Qantas chief financial officer Peter Gregg said yesterday. “We expect to have four aircraft by the end of that year and seven by mid-2009. While we are disappointed and have started to review our capacity needs in light of the delay, we are satisfied that it is due to production problems and not technical issues with the aircraft.”