Tom Enders, chief executive of Airbus, has ordered an internal investigation into how the company allowed wing cracks to develop, whilst reiterating that the aircraft was safe to fly as engineers repair hairline cracks in the wings.
"We made a little mistake here and we are repairing it as quickly as possible," Enders stated at a briefing at the Singapore Airshow today. "This plane is absolutely safe to fly."
"Are we learning from this? Absolutely. We are taking lessons from the A380 programme for the A350 programme," he said.
Enders also confirmed that Airbus will maintain a higher rate of production of its A380 aircraft and will make 30 this year.
Enders said it will pick up the tab for the repairs but declined to give an estimate. He also didn't disclose any details of discussions with airline customers on compensation and insisted that the A380 is "absolutely safe" to fly.