GILBERT SEDBON
The smallest member of the Airbus family is on schedule to join the fleet as the European airframer closes in on the target of a complete range of airliners in commercial service.
At the small end, the upcoming A318 will tackle the 100-plus-passenger market, a far cry from the superjumbo A380-800 that is in class of its own, capable of carrying up to 1,000 passengers. In between is a range of aircraft with which Airbus claims to have already captured half the global market.
Next year will see the entry into service of the Airbus A318 ‘wide baby'. Designed to carry 107-117 passengers over distances of 2,750-6,000km (1,500-3,200nm), it is being marketed with a choice of two engines: the Pratt & Whitney PW6000 (and variants specially designed and built for it) and the General Electric/Snecma CFM International CFM56-5B/P, the powerplant for the A320, A321 and A319.
Airbus's ‘wide baby' has already captured significant interest, nearing the 200 firm orders and commitments long before entry into service.
Explored
The flight envelope has been completely explored and the technical configuration of the aircraft confirmed, says Gerhard Puttfarcken, Airbus senior vice-president and single-aisle programme manager.
The handling characteristics are such that the new A318 behaves just like the larger models of the A320 family, he says.
The flight test campaign of the CFM56-powered version of the A318 starts in late August and is due to close with type certification in the second half of May 2003. The first A318 customer will take delivery in July 2003 for immediate entry into airline service.
The P&W-powered A318 first flew earlier this year in Hamburg and has since made its international debut at the ILA Berlin airshow. However, a setback with the PW6000 engine has caused a hiccup in the programme.
Air China, one of the engine launch customers, is seeking to cancel its A318 order because the new engine has failed to deliver the specified fuel consumption figures to specifications and entry into service is now delayed 30 months to mid-2005.
Both the engine manufacturer and the aircraft-builder are working out a compromise.
The first A318s equipped with a pair of PW6000 engines were initially supposed to enter service at the end of this year, following 10 months of tests and 600 flying hours.
But as the new engine failed to deliver on fuel consumption, P&W has decided to delay EIS to mid-2005.
The A318 prototype, now in the workshops to be fitted with the CFM56-5B/P engines, will resume test flights soon.
As it requires no more than 140h of test flights before completing its certification, it will meet the August/ September 2003 in-service deadline, Airbus test flights director Claude Lelaie says. A second aircraft is designed to become the flying testbed for the PW6000 engine and its variants.
Air China, which has a firm commitment for eight A318s and taken an option on two more, is reportedly in talks with Airbus and P&W aimed at cancelling its order, possibly by trading up to the larger A319. But P&W does not directly offer an A319 engine.
As part of Air China's 1999 deal, P&W agreed to buy back all four of the carrier's Boeing 747SPs, one of which is now a testbed.
A likely solution is for the Beijing-based carrier to switch to International Aero Engines V2500-powered A319s. Although not directly produced by P&W, the V2500 is a joint venture between the US company and Japanese Aero Engines, MotorenTurbin Union (MTU) and Rolls-Royce.
America West Airlines, another A318 customer, has been forced to slip delivery of 15 aircraft by three years to 2006-07 as part of its recent financial restructuring plan, but remains committed to the PW6000.
"We're still sticking to the 15 A318s we have on firm order," says Bernie Han, America West executive vice-president and chief financial officer. "There are no plans to change that. And we're sticking to the PW6000 as well."
Before the financial restructuring and the P&W delay, the Phoenix-based carrier had been due to take all 15 A318s, two additional A319s and eight A320s between 2003 and 2004.
Revised
The revised plan defers the completion of the A318 and A319 deliveries to the end of 2007, but also includes an additional 17 A320 family options for delivery between 2006 and 2008.
The airline is also confirming purchase rights on another A320-family aircraft for delivery in 2005-08.
Two other A318 customers, British Airways and EgyptAir, which between them hold 26 orders for the PW6000-powered aircraft, are also in talks with Airbus and P&W on the engine issue.
All others in the orderbook – including GECAS, IFLC, Air France, ILFC, CATX/ Flightlease, Frontier Airlines and Brazil's TAM – are going for the CFM56-5B/P version.
Airbus marketing vice-president Colin Stuart is not overly dismayed by the timetable reshuffling, an occasional hazard in the aircraft selling business – though manufacturers could do without them, particularly with the current state of the international market.
"A good start," says Stuart, adding that he expects a "fatter" order-book despite, or rather because of the 11 September terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that threw the international air transport industry into crisis.
It is a good start indeed for the A318 as profitable low-fare domestic airlines and lease companies are focusing on less costly regional aircraft, leaving the more expensive widebodied types for later.
The A318 will be assembled along with its larger elder brothers the A319 and A321 at EADS' DaimlerChrysler Aerospace production plant in Hamburg, Germany.
The Germans expect to take over the A320 from the Toulouse facility.
The first A318 has the same cockpit as the rest of the A320 family, featuring the most modern fly-by-wire technology available on any single-aisle aircraft.
Operators of other Airbus aircraft can therefore reap the benefits of Airbus commonality, with pilots, crews and maintenance personnel able to switch from one Airbus type to another with shorter training periods, leading to more efficient flight operations and enhanced fleet productivity, Stuart says.
The A318 assembly line will reach four aircraft per month in 2003, rising in concert with demand.
Maximum
The A318 is available with a variety of maximum takeoff weights (MTOW) to suit operator needs, ranging from the 59t, 2,750km (1,500nm) basic version to the heaviest model, the 68t version with 6,000km range.
As for the salespeople from Seattle, they stress the complementarity of their two aircraft, claiming that the 717 is their ‘short-legged' 100-seater and the 737-600 the one capable of flying long distances.
With the A318, the Airbus consortium offers a product capable on its own of meeting the requirements of the different market niches, says Stuart.
It will be highly optimised, with plenty of scope for serving secondary airports, as the A319/A320s do. Above all, it will continue to capitalise on the family concept – identical flight deck, cabin, systems and other components as the A320.
As a derivative of the A319CJ, the A318's fuselage is 2.39m shorter, yet features the same spacious cabin cross-section that translates into wider seats and greater cabin comfort than Boeing's 717 or any competing aircraft in this category, Stuart says.
In the end, development of the A318 is unlikely to cost more than $370 million, nearly half of which would have to be found by EADS' French partner, Aerospatiale-Matra, in charge of the forward section, front cargo door, and engine integration.
Airbus surveys suggest the requirement in the international market for 100-seat plus jets should be around 1,000 aircraft over the next 20 years. Airbus wants to secure 35-50% of this market.
The Airbus sales team are confident that they have a first-rate product and, at $36 million, it costs 12.2% less than the A319. They are not concerned that the A318 could nibble away at the A319's market.
Although capable of high-density seating, the normal capacity of the A318 should be between 107 seats (eight first-class, 99 economy-class) and 117 seats in a single-class layout pitched at 32in (813mm), compared with the A319, which offers between 124 and 145 seats.
Source: Flight Daily News
