Airbus delays Strata Airbus A330/340 parts schedule

Strata Manufacturing will not become Airbus’ sole provider of A330 and A340 ailerons until 2017, a year after the original contractual agreement, following a request by the planemaker to push back the schedule.

Saif Al Dabashi, Senior Operations Manager at Strata, told Gulf News on Monday Airbus has asked the composite plane parts maker to delay the timeline by one year because of a “modification” to the planemaker’s needs.

The modification is because Airbus does not believe it will need as many A330 and A340 ailerons in 2016 as it had previously anticipated, he said at the Dubai International Project Management Forum.

Strata, the Mubadala Development Company subsidiary that builds composite plane parts in Al Ain, is currently manufacturing half of all of Airbus’ A330 and A340 aileron requirements, Al Dabashi said.

An aileron is the hinged part on the wing that is used to control the direction of the aircraft.

Mubadala is negotiating with Airbus to broaden the number and type of parts Strata builds as part of a 2013 agreement. On November 12, Airbus Middle East President Habib Fekih told Gulf News that Strata will be manufacturing A350 and more A380 parts under the new agreement.