NORTH Wales aircraft boss Brian Fleet swept aside doubts about the Airbus Superjumbo as it makes its British debut today. Yesterday he predicted decades of sales success as the world's biggest passenger airliner prepared to fly into history. The 73m-long A380 makes its British debut today, swooping over the Airbus Broughton factory for the first time, cheered on by 7,000 flag-waving workers. Reports there have been no sales of the 555-seater aircraft in the last 12 months were dismissed by the Broughton MD. He said: "We have sold 159 A380 aircraft and the sales will take up to 2011/12. The rest of the market is waiting to see its successful entry into the market place at the end of the year. "When it starts operating and people start enjoying the comforts of this large aircraft, they will apply the right pressure to the other airlines, because once you fly on this you won't want to fly on anything else. "It's on schedule for delivery to Singapore Airlines at the end of this year as we planned. You always have the initial wave of orders when you launch a product into the market place. After the initial wave you sell X number of years of production. "The next four or five years are sold, then you will have a second wave coming in saying 'Yes, it's fantastic - it has delivered all the guarantees and performance the manufacturers stated'. It will be a very great commercial success, no doubt about it." |