Emirates Airbus A380 Grounded After Fuel Truck Collision At Manchester Airport

One Emirates The A380 was hit by a fuel truck at Manchester Airport on Friday, damaging one of its engine cowlings. The incident caused Emirates to cancel its scheduled return flight to Dubai and the aircraft was grounded in Manchester for more than two days following the incident.

Pictures of the plane shared on social media show a hole in the lip section of the engine cowling. Emirates worked quickly to repair the damaged engine, getting the plane back in the air just two days after the incident.

Fuel truck hits Emirates A380 engine in Manchester

As first reported by X account @aviationbrk, the collision occurred on the apron manchester airport (MAN) as an emirate airbus a380 (Registration: A6-EVP) Dubai International Airport (DXB). The flight was scheduled to depart Manchester at 1:15pm local time and arrive in Dubai at 12.25am+1am. The double-decker had just completed flight EK17 – a seven-hour journey from DXB – and was preparing to operate the return flight when the incident occurred.

However, it is said that while the plane was parked at the gate a fuel truck “bumped” it, leaving a hole in the engine casing. Details of what actually happened are limited at this stage, although Planespotters.net lists Engine No. 1 as the damaged engine. The airline later canceled the return flight to Dubai and rerouted customers to alternative flights. Simply Flying has contacted Emirates for comment on this incident and will update this story accordingly.

Repair Cost

Damage to any component of an aircraft typically results in high costs, and the fact that the Airbus A380 – an aircraft that is now out of production – could drive up the costs. The supply of spare parts for the A380 has become so low that a large number of A380s have been destroyed.

As Simple Flying has previously discovered, more than 12% of the global A380 fleet is now scrapped, providing vital parts for the spares ecosystem. However, the A380 has become increasingly difficult for some airlines to maintain, with many operators experiencing reliability problems with their A380 fleets. Although there was no fault with the plane in Friday’s incident in Manchester, repairing it could prove costly for Emirates.

Then we must also take into account the cost of flight cancellation and whether passengers are in the queue for compensation. Given that responsibility for the incident appears to lie with the ground vehicle operator, Emirates will probably file this under exceptional circumstances, exempting it from paying customers. But the cost of flight cancellations will still be very high – for example, Eurocontrol estimates that canceling a widebody aircraft flight in a single day will typically cost an airline up to $150,000.

About the Airbus A380 involved

The aircraft parked in Manchester is one of the youngest A380s in Emirates’ fleet, having been handed over to the carrier in May 2021. While most of Emirates’ A380 engines are powered by Alliance’s GP7200 engines, the A6-EVP is one of its few double-deckers equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.

The A380 can seat 484 passengers in four cabin classes, including 14 first class, 76 business, 56 premium economy and 338 economy seats. According to CH-Aviation data, the A6-EVP has accumulated more than 20,000 flight hours and 2,200 flight cycles in its five years flying with Emirates.

Flightradar24 tracking data shows that A6-EVP eventually departed Manchester more than two days after the collision. The aircraft took off from MAN on 30 November on flight EK20, which departed MAN at 9:24 pm local time and then landed safely in Dubai at 8:05 am local time.