Industry officials are seeking to delay plans to develop a single-aisle replacement aircraft by two to three years despite new pleas from airline customers for a speedier turn-around.
Dennis Huff, a project scientist for NASA's subsonic fixed-wing project, says that the agency's potential industrial partners are pushing back plans to replace the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737.
"Early on we were looking at 2012, now it is more realistically 2015," says Huff. "We are entering partnerships with industry, and hearing from them ranges of 2014-15."
The delay is not likely to sit well with some airline chief executives, some of whom are already demanding the industry deliver the all-new narrowbody aircraft for the first time in nearly 20 years.
"We are encouraging manufacturers and engine producers to launch new narrowbody aircraft" to replace the company's fleet, United Airlines executive vice-president and chief financial officer Jake Brace told delegates last week at a Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in New York. "There are no plans to place orders for current technology [narrowbodies]."
United has a need to start replacing its oldest 737s, which have hit the 18-year mark, with a new fleet in the 2013-14 timeframe.
United is not alone in its interest of new-technology narrowbodies. AirTran Airways recently ordered 15 737-700s to bridge the delivery gap until a new design is available.
"Our view is that a new airplane will probably come out at 2014, so this [15-strong 737 order] gives us a steady stream of deliveries for 2011 and 2012 that will tide us over until that point in time that there is a new product out there," says AirTran chief financial officer Stan Gadek.
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Source: Flight International
