Emirates aims to place A380 order at Dubai airshow

By Victoria Bryan

HAMBURG (Reuters) - Emirates [EMIRA.UL] hopes to order more Airbus A380 super jumbos at the Dubai airshow this month, the airline's chairman said on Friday.

"I hope we will be able to do it," Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said at a ceremony to receive the airline's 100th A380, saying that negotiating teams were working on it.

Emirates is the world's biggest customer of the A380, having ordered 142 of the planes and Sheikh Ahmed said he wanted to see the plane continuing.

Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders said he hoped Airbus would deliver "at least" the remaining 42 to Emirates.

Despite sluggish sales calling the future of the A380 into question, Enders said he believed Airbus would be producing the jumbo jets 10 years from now and was working on sales campaigns.

"I'm not sure I will let John Leahy retire without at least one more significant A380 order," Enders said, in reference to the departing sales chief of Airbus.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Airbus has embarked on a fresh search for a sales chief to take over from Leahy as the aerospace group seeks a clean break from turmoil over investigations into the use of middlemen.

Enders dismissed recent reports that the French government wants more political influence over Airbus management.

"There is nobody who is seriously considering reintroducing government controls in Airbus," he said.

Like rival Etihad, Emirates is currently facing a tough business environment, with overcapacity, an oil-price related drop in business travel and temporary restrictions on travel to the United States.

Emirates is working more closely with budget airline flydubai, on matters such as network planning, schedules and frequent flyer programmes.

Al-Maktoum said the partnership so far had been excellent, with a good number of passengers moving between the two.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Tom Sims and Alexander Smith)