Airbus is upbeat that there will be further sales of the A350-1000 as more airlines start to concentrate on replacing their large widebodies in the 2020-2023 timeframe.
Speaking at the ISTAT Asia event in Hong Kong, Airbus's head of leasing and investor marketing Mark Pearman-Wright says that while the larger variant has "12 good customers" more will come as airlines consider their options to replace 777-300ERs.
"We are positioned to particularly pick up that wave of replacement that starts later," he says.
Boeing's vice-president of marketing Randy Tinseth agrees that replacement phase will take place around the 2020-2023 timeframe.
Pearmann-Wright adds that with over 850 A350s sold, it had a "programme advantage", with some -900 customers expected to order the -1000 to meet their growth requirements.
"60% of our largest A350 customers have ordered both variants. We will continue to see that growth," he says.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that there are 211 A350-1000s on order with 23 options. The largest customers are Qatar Airways, (37 on order) United Airlines (35) and Cathay Pacific (26).
The first A350-1000 is due to enter service later this year with Qatar Airways.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
