Aircraft availability and completions capacity are straining the market for VIP versions of narrowbody and widebody airliners, forcing backlogs well into next decade and pushing up prices of used aircraft.
In the latest deals, Germany's Lufthansa Technik is to complete a pair of VIP Airbus A330-200s for delivery to two unnamed customers in 2008 and 2009. LHT has also won a German government contract to supply, outfit and support a new VIP transport fleet including two Airbus A319 Corporate Jetliners.
Up to 20 VIP-configured widebodies - Boeing 747-8s and 787s, and Airbus A330s, A340s and A380s - are expected to come on to the global completions market between now and 2015, and demand for the narrowbody airliners including the ACJ and Boeing Business Jet is already stretching capacity to its limit.
With total orders now standing at 135 aircraft, Boeing says the 737-based BBJ is sold out to early 2013, well beyond the current completions capacity bottleneck. The 787-8/9 VIP, with 13 orders, is sold out until the third quarter of 2016, while the five sales of 747-8 VIPs have pushed the next delivery slot to the second quarter of 2013. Interest in the 777, with a shorter waiting time of five years, is consequently gaining momentum. Airbus says completion capacity is constraining sales as its VIP orders approach 40 aircraft a year. Announcing its 100th ACJ order at the show, the European airframer has moved to relieve the pressure by setting up its own completion centre at the former EADS Sogerma maintenance base in Toulouse. The first two ACJs have been delivered, but the site is limited to outfitting three narrowbodies a year.
With the first VIP A380 to be delivered for outfitting in July 2010, the first four 747-8s in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first 787s also in that year, manufacturers are bracing for a widebody completions crunch.
Source: Flight International
