South Africa calls time on A400M

The South African government decided on 4 November to withdraw from the A400M military transport aircraft programme due to delays and spiralling acquisition costs, although the country's search for military airlift capability is ongoing.

"The termination of the contract is due to extensive cost escalation and the supplier's failure to deliver the aircraft within the stipulated timeframes," said an official government statement, although South African Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisolu stressed that the country is still seeking to enhance its military airlift capability: "We've not terminated our quest to ensure we have the necessary capabilities. That is very clear," he said.

The impact of South Africa's withdrawal on Airbus is "limited", a company spokesman for the company's parent group EADS told Jane's on 5 November, although he added that EADS was disappointed and that "it is clearly not good news".

The spokesman added that the contract termination would not lead to a rise in aircraft costs for other A400M customers, explaining: "The development costs were supported by the first contract with OCCAR [Organisation Conjointe de Co-opération en matière d'Armement - the collaborative European arms procurement organisation that represents A400M launch customers in this case]. There will be no impact."

The seven European A400M partner countries - Germany, Spain, France, the UK, Turkey, Belgium and Luxembourg - ordered a total of 180 of the airlifters in May 2003 under a single EUR20 billion (USD29.5 billion) fixed-price production and development contract. In addition to South Africa's contract, Malaysia ordered four aircraft.