Spain Likely To Receive First A400M Transport Aircraft In September This Year

Spain is likely to receive its first Airbus A400M military transport aircraft in September.

The A400M aircraft’s final assembly is being done at the Airbus Defence and Space Seville facility. The production has accumulated delays in recent months, after detecting several problems in the engine and gearbox in some frames of the fuselage structure, efeempresas reported Wednesday.

These problems have not been confirmed in the 24 aircraft already in service, but were forced to prioritize the replacement of damaged parts in them, not to undermine its operation, which has slowed down the assembly line, waiting for the arrival of new components rectified.

The Seville factory leads delivered only two of the twenty aircraft planned for this year, although it will resume deliveries of equipment this month, once corrected the problems identified.

Compensation for cost overruns and delays delivery of these aircraft "case by case" will be negotiated, depending on the delay and cost of repairs.

Rising suffered since by this program, whose initial budget was set at 20,000 million euros, it has forced several governments, including the Spanish, to renegotiate the number of aircraft involved, or delay delivery.