Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC
Airbus says A330 derivatives will continue to form the core of its long term product development strategy despite Boeing's decision to attack the same market with its 200/250-seat high-speed Sonic Cruiser passenger jet.
Although Airbus has revealed it is also working on its own E2 concept for high-speed subsonic travel, it says it still needs to be convinced that such an aircraft is viable from an economic and environmental standpoint. "If an aircraft like that can be done, it's an intriguing possibility. If so, our people would be best placed to make it work," says Adam Brown, Airbus vice president market forecast, with reference to earlier work on the Aerospatiale/BAe Concorde.
He adds that such an aircraft would complement but not replace existing long-haul widebody aircraft. Airbus' focus for a nearer-term replacement in the 200/250- seat market is still the A330-200, or "other A330 derivatives". He says Airbus is still interested in the A330-500 in spite of a recent decision to hold off proceeding with the programme this year to focus on the A380. The aircraft represents a further shrink of the baseline A330- 300, which had raised airline concerns about operating efficiency.
Airbus contends that the success of the shortened A319 and the even smaller A318 version has proven the viability of a double shrink. "When you shrink an aircraft you offer less seats and less risk. The A330-500 looks as attractive as any other smaller aircraft done by Airbus," says Brown.
"Taking a 20 year view, two things are going to have to be addressed: what happens to the single-aisle family of aircraft and what happens in the 200-250-seat size. The question is what's first and when," says Brown. "As far as the single-aisle family is concerned, we have so much momentum that we have the luxury of being able to wait and see what the competition does before we move," he adds. The A320 first entered service in 1988 and sales, including the A318/ A319/A321 versions, now total 2,700 aircraft, of which over 1,250 are still to be delivered. The A310/A300 backlog by comparison totals just 88 aircraft.
Source: Flight International
