Airbus superjumbo is overweight and years behind schedule, says Clark

London: Emirates, the biggest buyer of the world's biggest airliner, said the Airbus A380 was 5.5 tonnes overweight in addition to two years behind schedule.

However, it has not yet started negotiations with the planemaker regarding these issues, Emirates President Tim Clark said while visiting a new lounge at London's Heathrow Airport designed to handle Emirates' A380s.

Emirates has 43 of the $300 million superjumbo on order and has been a vocal critic of the planemaker, which is two years behind schedule on the plane after encountering problems in installing their wiring.

The airline's first A380 is now expected to be delivered in August 2008.

Emirates will also send its own eight-person audit team to the Airbus plants in Toulouse and Hamburg to assess how realistic the latest delivery schedule is.

Clark said he plans to lease seven Boeing 777 planes and will hold onto them for 10 to 15 years, giving himself some insurance should there be any further delay to the A380 schedule.

"It would be foolish to say we do not expect anything further," Clark told reporters when asked if the third and most recent delay in the A380 would be the last.

Airlines angered by the delay have demanded late-delivery fees from Airbus and some have threatened to cancel their orders.

Clark said cancellation was one of many options open in the negotiations but stressed that Emirates had not yet engaged with Airbus on this issue.