TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) Director of Commerce Irzal Rinaldi Zailani, said that the Indonesian aircraft manufacturer was notified by Airbus far before the European manufacturer publically announced its plan to stop producing the iconic A380 in 2021.

"Actually, Airbus had already been in talks with all of their tier suppliers prior to announcing that they would stop the A380 production. We are one of their tier suppliers, we relatively knew enough about this issue," said Irzal to Tempo on Friday, February 15, 2019.

PT DI had been supplying components to Airbus for the A380 production as a Tier-1 supplier since the aircraft was first introduced roughly 8 years ago.

"The inaugural flight of the [A380] used components from us," Irzal said.

Furthermore, Irzal said that PT DI signed a contract with Airbus to supply a number of components for the A380, which will expire by the end of 2020. The contract value is roughly USD 20 million.

According to Irzal, the components that were supplied by PT DI include inboard and outboard flat leading edge, bracket and attachments of several internal components within the wing such as fixture and jigs.

In terms of the reduced orders following the discontinuation of the A380, he optimistically said that PT DI might be handed another contract to produce components for Airbus A320 that has a larger market in the aviation industry.

AHMAD FIKRI (CONTRIBUTOR)