Air France-KLM is pressing Airbus and Boeing to firm up plans to develop successors to the A320 and 737, as it seeks to place an initial order for up to 80 aircraft.
The SkyTeam carrier has been pushing Airbus and Boeing to start working on new narrowbody products since 2000.
Speaking to flightglobal.com's sister on-line service Air Transport Intelligence (ATI), during the World Air Transport Forum in Cannes in late October, Air France senior vice-president for new aircraft and corporate fleet planning Pierre Vellay said that he is looking to place a two-phase aircraft order to replace Air France's A320 family aircraft and KLM's 737-300 and -400 fleets.
"The first stage could be 70-80 aircraft," he said. "We are just at the very beginning of understanding what could be offered by the [airframers] and engine manufacturers. First we would need open competition. We will place an order only if there were products offered at the same time by Boeing and Airbus."
Although Vellay is keen to initiate the replacement as soon as possible, he believes today's products do not offer a sufficient step change in economics. Citing significant progress in long-haul aircraft development, he is keen to see similar progress in the medium-haul segment.
Air France operates almost 150 A320 family aircraft while KLM has around 50 Boeing 737s. Air France recently signed a memorandum of understanding for 18 A320s to replace similar aircraft in its fleet that are approaching 20 years of age.
This is believed to be the first time an airline has ordered new aircraft to replace what are effectively the same aircraft type.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
