Brendan Sobie / Singapore
Singapore Airlines (SIA) last week delayed again its long-awaited widebody order, but plans to begin final negotiations with Airbus and Boeing over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Airbus is expected to decide early next month whether to go ahead with proposals for an all-new family to succeed the current planned A350 models.
SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng says the carrier’s board “has given management a mandate to enter final negotiations with the manufacturers”.
He adds: “What orders we place will depend very much on the response of the manufacturers to the negotiations.”
SIA has been evaluating the A350 and Boeing 787 and a selection, initially expected early this year, was due to be on the agenda for possible approval at the airline’s 9 May board meeting. However, with pressure from various Airbus customers, including SIA, to rethink the A350’s design, industry sources say Airbus subsequently asked SIA to hold off from making a selection at the 9 May meeting because details of a redesign are forthcoming.
Flight International exclusively revealed last week that Airbus was contemplating a major revamp of the A350 with a wider fuselage and larger wing to enable it to compete more effectively with the 787 and 777. According to industry sources, the Airbus board will discuss whether to go ahead with the programme at a meeting early next month.
Emirates, which has a requirement for up to 100 aircraft, has been a main driver behind Airbus’s A350 rethink. It is also pushing Boeing to develop a further stretch of the 787, the -10X.
“We’ve not been alone in trying to get Airbus to undertake a radical rethink of the A350 for some time,” says Emirates president (airline) Tim Clark. “They have made good progress.”
Meanwhile, SIA has also delayed a selection of new large-capacity and ultra-long-range aircraft. It has been evaluating the Boeing 777-200LR as a possible replacement for its fleet of five Airbus A340-500s. It has also received a proposal for Boeing 747-8s, which it is evaluating against a proposal for more Airbus A380s.
SIA already has 10 A380s on order. It may now place simultaneous orders for up to three aircraft types as early as June.
The carrier says that, although the board did not approve any new aircraft order last week, it is “a step closer” to completing a review of new aircraft types, which it began in the middle of last year.
Additional reporting by Max Kingsley-Jones in london
Source: Flight International
