Defects ground Emirates' A380 fleet

German daily Der Spiegel has reported that Emirates Airlines given Airbus officials a very long list of defects found across the carrier's recently acquired fleet of A380 superjumbos. The report says that the 46-page report by Emirates outlines a number of defects which have already grounded the carrier's four A380s a total of 500 hours to date.

Bloomberg quoted EADS spokesman Alexander Reinhardt as saying, "Airbus takes these problems very seriously. We are working intensively to fix those problems." The spokesman also refused to outline the nature of the problems, claiming customer confidentiality prevented such disclosures.

A Emirates spokesman said simply, "We had a routine meeting with Airbus to discuss aircraft delivery positions down the line."

Last week, Emirates announced the possibility of delaying the delivery of more A380s.

Emirates has ordered a total of 58 A380s on order, making it Airbus' biggest customer.

Airbus delivered 12 A380s in 2008, and expects to make another 18 deliveries during 2009. Airlines, including Lufthansa, have been announcing likely delays in taking deliveries of the superjumbo, suggesting production delays are mounting.