Spain, Airbus Agree to Revised A400M Deliveries

In May 2003, Spain decided to acquire 27 units of what was considered to be the Rolls Royce of military transport aircraft: the Airbus A400M. This was a key acquisition for the Spanish air force, which looked like it could lose its in-flight refueling capability when the current Boeing 707 tankers ended their service life in 2017.

The program’s cost amounted to nearly 6,000 million euros, and the first unit is scheduled to be delivered in 2016.

However, the economic situation has forced the Ministry of Defence to review this program, deciding to dispense with 13 of the aircraft which, although they will still be acquired, will be offered for sale on the export market.

The air force also requested a delay in the delivery of the second batch to deal with payments more easily. After several negotiation sessions, this morning the president of Airbus Spain, and head of the military division of Airbus D & S, Fernando Alonso, said "we are close to signing an agreement with Spain to postpone the delivery of the second batch of 13 aircraft until 2024."

This has been confirmed in a meeting with reporters, in which he also pointed out that "the other 14 will, in principle, be delivered from 2016 to 2018."

The initial delivery schedule for our country called for the first aircraft to arrive in 2016, with another four to follow in 2017. Another 10 were to be delivered in 2018 and 2019, while the final 12 would be delivered between 2020 and 2022, at a rate of four per year.

Now, with this reprogramming, the final 13 aircraft that will be offered for sale to other countries will be delivered from 2024. Relinquishing these units means that the government would not have to pay for their maintenance, so the bill would be reduced by about 800 million euros, that will be added to the money generated by their sale.

Alonso also admitted that the company had to "stop production for two months” after the crash of a pre-delivery aircraft in May, which killed four Airbus flight test personnel. However, and although the plane is still having some problems of capabilities, "they are now identified and we know how to fix them." Optimistically, he stressed that they will reach, or come "very close" to achieving, the delivery goal of 20 aircraft this year.

In addition to Spain, Airbus is also negotiating deadlines with Germany, France and Britain, because "the countries’ needs have changed." Alonso also said that "since the summer, there has been a resurgence of interest in military equipment" and that some countries have requested A400Ms. Thus, if Airbus finally manages to change the contractual delivery dates, the aircraft will "be given to other countries that are asking for them now."

The A400M program is financed by seven countries which originally agreed to acquire 174 units of this modern military transport aircraft: Germany (53), France (50), Spain (27), United Kingdom (22) Turkey (10), Belgium (7) and Luxembourg (1). In addition, Malaysia will acquire four additional units.

The cost of this ambitious project amounted initially at 20,000 million euros, but successive delays and problems during production forced to revise this figure in 2010 and finally its price increased by 3,500 million euros, of which 2,000 million is paid by the partner nations and the other 1,500 million euros could be recovered through future sales to third-party countries.

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