Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which ordered the world's second-largest fleet of Airbus SAS A380 airliners, said it won't get its first superjumbo until the summer of 2008, rather than January of that year as expected.

The carrier, Europe's second-biggest, after Air France-KLM Group, had originally expected to receive the first of 15 A380s on order at the end of 2007 so it might use four of the new planes for the midyear flight plan starting in April 2008.

The delivery date was pushed back to January 2008 at the beginning of this year after Airbus announced initial wiring and electronics problems with the double-decker plane. Now, Lufthansa has only been assured of getting one plane in 2008, Stefan Schaffrath, a spokesman, said in a telephone interview today.

``We are in close dialogue with Airbus, but for now I can only confirm the planned schedule for the first plane,'' Schaffrath said. He declined to give a month for the delivery or the start of operations, saying only it would be in the ``summer.''

Airbus parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. said June 13 that the first A380 deliveries were a year behind schedule because of wiring difficulties. The company said today it had replaced Charles Champion as head of the program with Mario Heinen, who has overseen production of the A320 series.

Lufthansa, based in Cologne, Germany, will be the second- biggest operator of the 555-seat plane, after Emirates. The carrier has options to order five additional superjumbos, and Lufthansa Chief Executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber said Feb. 23 that he plans to eventually buy more A380s to replace or add to its fleet of long-range aircraft.

``We'll still be the first in Europe to use the A380,'' Schaffrath said.

Lufthansa plans to place a large order this year for long- haul airplanes and has said it's considering the Airbus A350 and Boeing Co.'s 747 and 787 models.

To contact the reporter on this story: Susanna Ray in Frankfurt at sray7@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 4, 2006 09:30 EDT