We 'Screwed Up' on A380 Wing Cracks: Airbus CEO

Airbus CEO Tom Enders said the company will fix problems in the wings of the A380 superjumbo, after cracks were detected last month, and said he hoped the issue won't hurt sales of the aircraft in its target markets of Asia and the Middle East.

Johannes Eisele | AFP| Getty Images Tom Enders, CEO of aircraft manufacturer Airbus

“We will fix it (wing problem) as quickly as possible. This is unfortunate, this is us. We screwed that up. Whatever the cost, we will fix it,” Enders said on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit.

He added that it was too early at this point to say how much it would cost to fix the cracks in the wings, but according to some media reports it could be around 100 million euros ($132 million).

Enders said he was very hopeful that more customers would place orders for the A380 in Asia in the coming years as the aircraft was “built for Asia and the Middle East.”

“We are just at the beginning (in Asia)….when people saw the airline fly last year in Korea and China, they realized it offered superior economies. The A380 will fly in Malaysia and Thailand this year and we will sell a lot of A380s in the future,” Enders said.

Despite several technical delays and glitches after it entered service in 2007, including a problem in 2010 with its Rolls Royce engine, Enders says the aircraft is here to stay. “The (A 380) program was deliberately devised and to last 40 –50 years,” he said.