Airbus confident on A350 orders

Manufacturer releases technical details of twinjet and insists government aid is not a condition of launching

Airbus is confident that it will have signed up at least 50 orders for its new A350 family by the time the industry gathers at Le Bourget for the biennial Paris air show in June. Meanwhile, the manufacturer has provided the first detailed technical information on the new aircraft, which it believes will enable it to compete strongly against the Boeing 7E7 and 777-200 twinjets.

"Following authority to offer [earlier this month], we're out in the market talking to airlines," says Airbus chief commercial officer John Leahy. "With the interest we've got...we should have at least 50 orders by the Paris air show." He declines to reveal who the potential launch customers are, although Northwest Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines are widely believed to be leading candidates.

Leahy says that the development of the new A330-derived family will cost €4 billion ($5.3 billion), but emphasises that government launch aid - which is currently being contested by the US government at the World Trade Organisation - "is not a condition of the A350...a decision [on whether to seek launch aid] will be made early next year - probably in the first quarter," he says.

Airbus is still finalising the definition of the new aircraft, which will enter service in the first half of 2010, and expects to reach design freeze by mid-2005. Leahy says that the current configuration is the third and most advanced iteration since the A330 derivative was conceived in mid-2004.

"Version 0 was 2.5t lighter than the A330, and Version 1 was another 2.5t lighter - these aircraft had a 2009 service entry and lower non-recurring costs in the region of c3-3.5 billion," says Leahy.

Airlines were keen that Airbus maximise the performance gains, says Leahy, so Version 1.5 was conceived with an all-new, lighter wing to give the equivalent of an 8t weight improvement over the A330. This pushed the service entry back a year and bumped up the development costs to €4 billion.

Although the 7E7 is seen as the A350's main rival, Leahy says that the size and performance of the larger A350-900 model enables Airbus "to go after the 777-200ER, rather than the 7E7-9".

Note *H= half **2004 delivery conditions 

MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / LONDON

Source: Flight International