Emirates, the biggest single airline customer for the A380 superjumbo, indicated yesterday that it would stick with its $13bn (£6.9bn) order for the troubled aircraft, but launched a scathing attack on the management of Airbus and said it was also considering buying a rival Boeing jet.

Tim Clark, the president of the Gulf carrier, described Airbus's handling of the A380 fiasco as "woeful" and said that Emirates had not ruled out further delays in the delivery of the 45 aircraft it has on order.

Mr Clark said the two-year delay on the A380 programme would cost Emirates "several hundreds of millions of dollars" in lost revenues and cause a "big dent" in profits. But he indicated that there were no plans to cancel any of the order because the 600-seater plane was "integral" to the airline's expansion plans, adding that Emirates was yet to begin negotiations with Airbus about compensation for the delays.

Emirates is to send a team of eight engineers into Airbus's Toulouse and Hamburg factories in the middle of next month to carry out a one-week audit to establish whether the latest estimate of delivery dates given to it can be relied upon.

Speaking at Heathrow airport, where Emirates was opening a new business-class lounge, Mr Clark said: "It would be foolish to say that we did not expect further delays and it would be foolish to say we can plan our step up in growth on what we have heard today."

He added that, while cancellation was one option available to it under the contract with Airbus, that was unlikely to be an issue. "We didn't buy 45 A380s just to then lose the competitive edge these aircraft are giving us. These will give a stupendous improvement to our bottom line. We are not going to throw these advantages away."
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