This time, Akbar Al-Baker has received his Christmas present. A350 a brand new toy to 368 tonnes and 295.2 million dollars at list prices, Airbus has delivered in style today in Toulouse Qatar Airways boss, ten days after the umpteenth pataquès between the two groups.
Al-Baker, true to its reputation, refused on 13 December to take delivery of the first copy of the new long-haul Airbus, for reasons that remain unclear. The owner of the aircraft manufacturer Fabrice Brégier was not private to laugh this morning: “My dear Akbar, you are a demanding customer, particularly demanding and sometimes a little too much, but you are also one of the architects A350, he declared, saying that without the help of Qatar Airways, the aircraft would be “not the best in its class.”
Best in its class, the A350? The early years operating the unit, leading long-haul 100% again from the Boeing 787, will allow to verify if the promise is kept Airbus has no choice. with this program, the European aircraft manufacturer hopes to 50% of a market estimated at 1,000 billion dollars by Fabrice Brégier. All on a segment where Boeing has two bestsellers, the brand new 787 Dreamliner (1,055 controls) and the legendary 777, the future version remotorisée 777X scheduled 2020 is already showing 286 firm orders.
A plane with no shortage of arguments
Does The A350 has the shoulders, or rather the wing, to conduct both front fighting? Recent sales performance shows that the device has serious arguments if Emirates has canceled its order for 70 A350 last spring, Airbus scored valuable points in Japan, placing 31 A350 at Japan Airlines (JAL), a historical customer US rival, in October 2013. The group has recurred since winning 20 November last an order for 25 A350s with the US company Delta, after a fierce competition.
The problem is that Boeing did better than resist: new generation of Boeing’s long-haul aircraft, 787 and 777X confused, show 1,341 orders in total, against 778 to date for the A350. The US rival has indeed chosen to cover a section of the broader market with its jets: there are three versions of the 787 (240 to 320 passengers) and two versions of 777X (350 to more than 400 passengers) or five different devices. Airbus has chosen, with its A350 to cover a smaller spectrum with only two versions of the A350 (314-369 passengers). A third smaller version, the A350-800 -270 seats), had to be developed to compete with the 787: it is dying a natural death, its order book rising from 135-32 commitments
Lack version 400 passengers
Airbus was able to respond quickly to this failure on entry by starting at the Farnborough Air Show in July, a remotorisée version of its A330, called A330neo. This device, available in two versions, has successfully entered the market, with 101 firm orders gleaned a few months, including 55 aircraft purchased by the low-cost Malaysian AirAsia. Airbus has managed to do with the good old A330, extensively remodeled it is true, that he was not able to get with the A350: tackle the 787
But it remains. a “hole in the paint” in the range of the European aircraft manufacturer. The A350-1000, the largest version of the A350, stops around 370 seats, when the future 777X can exceed 400 passengers. In this segment of the 400 seats, Airbus has therefore no real offer to offer, the A380 is rather calibrated to 525 or more passengers. The manufacturer refuses for now to consider a further stretched version of the A350, which some experts already christened already A350-1100. But the wind can quickly turn in aerospace: Airbus A330neo prepare a long denied, before changing his mind a few months
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