The cape is symbolic, it is no less historic. 42 years after the first commercial flight of the A300, the first aircraft developed by the group, Airbus has delivered Friday, October 14, the 10,000 th unit of its history, a long-haul A350-900 in Singapore Airlines. The boss of Airbus, Fabrice Brégier being retained by a commercial meeting, it is the executive chairman of the parent company Airbus Group, Tom Enders, who has hosted the CEO of the company of Singapore, Goh Choon Phong for this great raout toulouse. “It took 19 years to surpass the 1,000 aircraft delivered, it only took 19 months to deliver the 1,000 final,” said the German leader. Who made the bet to achieve the 10,000 next deliveries in only ten years : “We have always been ambitious and visionary, why not stay?”, a-t-he assured.
the 10,000-aircraft delivered by Airbus, nearly 6.800 other in backlog, 55.000 employees and 45.8 billion euros in turnover, it was Difficult to recognize the small Poucet of the european launched at the end of the 60s to the assault of the american giants. The development of the first Airbus, the A300, was decided in may 1969, three months before Woodstock, at a meeting between the minister of the French transport, Jean Chamant and the minister of the economy German Karl Schiller. In the Face of american giants who monopolize 80% of the market, the bet, a little crazy at the time, is to compete in the triréacteurs of the market, such as the Lockheed Tristar, Douglas DC-10 or Boeing 727 aircraft, with the first jet’s commercial history.
Eastern saves the day
The A300 won its first order from Air France in 1970, and makes its first flight two years later. Lufthansa and Korean Air, convinced, in order to turn the twin-engine Airbus. The first commercial flight took place in 1974, between London and Paris. The objective is required: the A300 consumes 20% fuel less than the triréacteurs american competitors. But with the oil shock of 1973, the orders begin to slow down. In 1975, the “white-tailed”, and these aircraft products without a customer to take delivery of it, piling up on the tarmac in toulouse. Airbus will come out with an ambitious offensive in Asia, the so-called strategy of the “silk road”, which makes it enter at Thai Airways, and especially thanks to the command of the american Eastern Airlines in 1978, the first in the United States. At the end of the 70s, Airbus has already exceeded 25% of market share.
The european airplane manufacturer wants to push his advantage. He decides to develop a new device, a shorter and a longer range than the A300. The A310 into service in 1983, with a series of firsts in technology, including the use of composite materials on the structure of the apparatus. These advances will be used to modernize the A300, with a version, the A300-600 which is a pretty commercial success. With these two aircraft, Airbus takes into finally, the embryo of the family of devices of which he dreams. Especially, the two devices operate in the same way, this lays the foundations for the “commonality” Airbus, which enables drivers to switch from one aircraft to another with only a few days of training.
The revolution A320
Exhilarated by their success, the founders want to go further. From the beginning of the 80′s, they think to launch a new device on the market for medium-haul. Air France expresses its support for the project as early as 1981, and the A320, launched in 1984, commissioned in 1988. “A revolution absolute in his time, says Bob Lange, director of product strategy and marketing at Airbus. The commands of flights, electrical, a world-first, have resulted in better flight safety, and an immediate response of the aircraft to the instructions of the pilot, who no longer had to fight with his muscles as on the devices of the past.” 28 years later, the A320 remains the weapon of Airbus. The device has accumulated 27.776 commands, and continues its impressive cardboard business, with over 4,800 orders for its version remotorisée, the A320neo.
Back in the late 80′s. Hardly the A320 has conducted its first flight, Airbus is already launching in a new bet: a double-program of the long-haul. Since 1987, the company began the development, on the same basic structure of a jet, the A330, and a quadriréacteur, the A340. The two aircraft, which arrived on the market in the early 90′s, will be the fate of contrasts: the airbus A340, a victim of the arrival of the Boeing 777 twin-engine much more efficient, continues to be a failure of major commercial aircraft. The A330, on the contrary, becomes a bestseller, which has already accumulated 1.633 orders and has stood up very well to the arrival of the new 787 Boeing. The version remotorisée, called the A330neo, will be delivered from the summer of 2017. It already has 186 firm orders.
The A380 remains a challenge
Since then, Airbus has tackled, with varying degrees of success, to the market in very large aircraft, with the A380, and jet long-haul of new generation, with the A350. The super jumbo A380, the nightmare of industry and finance for over ten years, remains a major challenge for the group. If the device has 319 orders, the flow of new contracts remains disappointing. To spread his deliveries awaiting better days, Airbus has planned to spend from two to one A380 product by month by 2018. “We remain very optimistic about the future of this aircraft”, says Tom Enders.
Next to the A350 on the other hand, the commercial success is at the rendez-vous, with 810 firm orders from 43 customers. If Airbus has delivered the closet, the smallest version of the aircraft, called the A350-800, the other two (900 and 1000) have been a place of choice on the market. Over forty aircraft have already been delivered. The aircraft manufacturer has planned to reach the rate of 10 A350 products per month in 2018. To complete its product range, Airbus also reflects to a version extended, so-called A350-2000, which would transport more than 400 passengers, like the 777X from Boeing.
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