Sure it's two years late, but that does not take away from the excitement as the first Airbus A380 Superjumbo plane was delivered today. The first company to get the revolutionary plane is Singapore Airlines, which is now the proud owner of the world's largest passenger plane.It was definitely a rocky road for Airbus maker European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (LSE: EAD). Delays on this project have taken their toll on the company in terms of personnel, profits and reputation. On the road to today's product handover, Airbus has torn through 5 CEOs, billions of dollars in extra costs, and a restructuring plan that will likely result in the loss of around 10,000 jobs. As if that's not bad enough, the company is also dealing with the fact that Boeing (NYSE: BA) was able to take its #1 sale spot in 2006.
While it is great to see the new A380 being delivered, it would be foolish to think that this marks of the end of hard times for the company. There is still an ongoing investigation in Airbus' parent company EADS over "massive insider trading" that the French Financial Markets Authority has claimed to uncover in its preliminary investigation into trading allegations against the company's senior managers.
So all in all, it has been a long road to get to today, but was it worth it? When this project got under way Airbus said it would be changing the nature of air travel. Whether that is the actual outcome or not will remain to be seen, but if you were to ask Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Chew Choon Seng what he thinks of his new plane, he would tell you it was "well worth the wait."
Singapore Airlines will hold the A380's inaugural commercial flight later this month with a flight from from Singapore to Sydney on October 25.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer
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