Can the Airbus A400M Be Saved?
By Hasnain Kazim and Anne Seith
03-02-2009
Enthusiasm is waning for the oft-delayed and over-budget military transport
plane A400M, currently under development by Airbus. Not only is the German
Defense Ministry reconsidering its orders, but even Airbus CEO Thomas Enders
has begun voicing his doubts.
When the subject of the military transport plane A400M comes up, the
reaction from Airbus CEO Thomas Enders is less than enthusiastic. "We want
to build the plane," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE at the just-ended World Economic
Forum in Davos. "But not at any price."
It is a comment that could be interpreted as a change in direction. Until
now, Airbus and its parent company EADS have consistently denied rumors that
the project was in danger of being mothballed. But the gigantic plane has
long been plagued by equally gigantic problems, leading to exploding costs,
frayed nerves and incessant delays. The tune now, as Enders is whistling it,
is that Airbus needs to see that the project can still be successful.
AP
The Airbus A400M military transport plane has still not taken flight.It's
not just Airbus itself that is losing passion for the project. Patience is
likewise wearing thin at Germany's Defense Ministry, which has ordered 60 of
the jumbos. The ministry, headed up by Franz-Josef Jung, refuses to comment
on the record. But a high-ranking air force officer told SPIEGEL ONLINE that
"the way Airbus is dealing with the problem has generated little enthusiasm
in the Defense Ministry."
The "problem" mentioned by the officer is an ongoing series of difficulties
that awakens memories of the delay-plagued introduction of the passenger
jumbo A380. The first A380 was finally delivered to Singapore Airlines in
October 2007 after extensive difficulties with the planes wiring and other
problems. The company lost billions of euros in earnings as a result.
The same fate seems to have befallen the A400M. There are troubles with the
software that controls the planes engines. The steering mechanism has proven
challenging. The propeller engines are too loud. And the entire thing is too
heavy, as Enders himself admits, before adding that excess weight is a
common challenge for new plane models. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung,
the plane has to shave off fully 12 tons.


The result has been major delays costing billions of euros. Originally, the
first planes were to be delivered this year. Now, the German air force fears
that it could be 2014 before the first A400M arrives. That, said Lieutenant
General Klaus-Peter Stieglitz in the Financial Times Deutschland, would be a
"disastrous development."
Inside the Defense Ministry, alternatives to the A400M are already being
looked into. "We aren't married to Airbus," said the high-ranking air force
officer who spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE. He said the German military could
live with a delay of "one or two years" by continuing to fly its old fleet
of C-160 Transall cargo planes. "But at some point, we will have to decide
what to do if the plane from Airbus continues to be delayed."
Were the German military to cancel its order, it would be difficult for the
project to survive. Germany is the plane's largest customer, accounting for
60 of the 190 orders that have been placed.
But Airbus too is weighing its options. "The way things are going now, it
makes no sense to continue. Period," Enders said. He would like to
renegotiate conditions agreed to with OCCAR, the defense consortium which
counts Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium and Spain as its
members. "I hope that we can begin talks in March," Enders said.
The point of the negotiations would be to take a close look at a number of
technical specifications that, according to Enders, need to be changed or
eliminated altogether. Most important, though, is taking a new look at
finances. The biggest problem facing Airbus are the fixed prices that were
established with the project began -- prices which, given the expensive
problems and delays so far experienced, are far too low. "It was idiotic to
sign back then," the Airbus CEO says openly. Such a project, he continues,
always has hidden risks.
In addition to the enormous development costs, the company will have to pay
high penalties as a result of delayed deliveries. EADS has already set aside
€1.7 billion for the payments.


The A400M was scheduled to take off for the first time last summer. Enders,
though, is unwilling to take the full blame for the fact that the cargo
plane remains grounded. "We could have flown the plane in October if we had
the engines," he said. But they are being developed by a consortium made up
of the French manufacturer SNECMA, Rolls Royce from Great Britain, ITP from
Spain and the German company MTU Aero Engines. "It wasn't the preference of
Airbus," Enders says of the cobbled-together team. Rather, it was a
political decision to make the project a European one.
Still, Enders believes that the technical difficulties encountered by the
project can be overcome. He says that, when compared to comparable military
projects, the current state of the A400M is hardly out of the ordinary. And
once it is complete, the aircraft will be "a good plane" -- one that is "far
ahead of other, comparable models." In projects of the magnitude of the
A400M, Enders said, it is normal to run into problems.
Germany's Defense Ministry is also aware that building a new cargo plane
isn't always as straightforward as it looks on paper. The high-ranking air
force officer emphasizes that there are other airplane manufacturers out
there -- in Russia or the US for example. "But they too would have to start
at the beginning once the orders came in."