FRANKFURT | Tue Feb 14, 2012 6:04am EST
Feb 13 (Reuters) - The biggest asset manager of leased A380 aircraft has criticized Airbus's communication strategy on wing cracks that have overshadowed efforts by the airplane maker to stabilize Europe's largest industrial project.
"Boeing is far more capable in managing image problems like this one than Airbus," said Mark Lapidus, Managing Director of Doric Asset Finance.
"Airbus probably could do a lot more anticipating issues than letting armchair engineers do all the talking," he added.
Germany-based leasing firm Doric, with $4.3 billion in aircraft assets under management, organized financing for 12 of the 68 A380s delivered around the world so far and counts Gulf carrier Emirates among its customers.
To build their fleet, airlines often rely on leasing firms like Doric, which specialize in collecting equity from investors as well as debt from banks or capital markets to buy an airplane, which it then lets to carriers.
Doric ranks among the top 12 aircraft lessors worldwide and is the third-largest lessor of wide-body aircraft, competing with the likes of GE Capital Aviation Services, International Lease Finance Corp and AerCap Holdings.
Under a new directive, the seven airlines currently operating A380s must carry out Airbus-sanctioned checks and preliminary repairs on every plane before its 1,300th flight.
The first round of inspections, which covered one third of the fleet, applied only to jets that had exceeded that number of flights. Aircraft already approaching or beyond the threshold must now be checked and repaired within weeks.
Airbus has said that the damaged L-shaped parts that fix the wing skins to their underlying frame, are "not a primary load-bearing structure".
Doric's Lapidus said he expected more directives to be issued.
"It is a certainty that Airbus will issue a service bulletin covering permanent repair, probably involving replacing some of the 7449 alloy brackets with 7010 alloy brackets, that are also plentiful in the wing and have not developed any cracks," he said.
While Airbus now faces an additional bill for wing checks and repairs, as well as compensation for customers' lost business, airlines are poised to have to pay more for the financing of new aircraft.
Lapidus said that he expects enough capital to be available in the $100 billion aircraft financing market in 2012, albeit at a higher cost than before.
"Over the last 6-9 months, prices have already risen by 50-70 basis points to margins of 300-320 basis points over midswap rates. The upward pressure is likely to continue," he added.
Source: http://www.reuters.com
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