Beijing, Sep 22 (DPA) Lufthansa and it partner Air China plan to build Asia's largest air plane hangar at Beijing Capital International Airport to house the Airbus A380 superjumbo, the company said Friday.

The $80.8 million aircraft maintenance facility built by Ameco Beijing, a joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa, is to be completed in March 2008 and operational before the Olympics start in August.

Reacting to further delays in the delivery of the A380, Lufthansa's head said in Beijing Friday that he stood behind the European airplane manufacturer, saying that delays in business are not unusual.

"We trust Airbus. There is no reason not to have confidence," said Lufthansa's Wolfgang Mayrhuber.

On Thursday, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), the parent company of Airbus, confirmed that delivery of the Airbus A380 superjumbo would suffer further delays after Airbus previously announced two six-month delivery delays.

Press reports said the largest commercial airliner ever built would be delayed by another six months and that only four planes would be shipped to clients in 2007 instead of the nine foreseen.

Lufthansa has ordered 15 A380s.

Beijing is to be a maintenance hub for the Airbus and the 350-metre-long and 40-metre-high hangar will have maintenance positions for six wide body and four narrow body aircraft.

A second hangar of the same size is to be built in the next few years.