Aviation Week Show News - November 11, 2007 - (Page 15)

BUSINESS AVIATION D U B A I 2 0 07 Airbus Enjoys a Banner Year for the ACJ Line Comlux, the launch customer for the A318 Elite, is showing its aircraft here for the first time. Boeing has declined to develop a rival, saying it is already selling all the airframes it can get its hands on for the more expensive BBJ. The A318 Elite was developed in an exclusive partnership with Lufthansa Technik. The German ultra-large business jet specialist created two basic cabin configurations (for either 18 or 14 passengers) plus 11 additional options that should meet virtually all potential customer needs. This “industrialization” of interiors results in much lower costs and faster completion times of about four months. That formula has been a big hit. The A318 Elite has cracked the U.S. market with an order this year for six from the Petters Group— some 25% of the A318s sold to date. Petters’ strategy is to shave delivery waits by buying aircraft it can deliver from inventory. —John Morris Oman represents just one of many Middle East customers for the ACJ, making vp Richard Gaona very happy. Airbus has scored its best year ever for executive and VVIP aircraft, with 45 sales by the end of September pushing ACJ orders quickly reducing the lead gained by Seattle early in the program. One reason is that airline demand for the 737 is so strong that the BBJ sales If today I could get ten Airbus ACJs for delivery in 2009, I would sell them all within less than two months. —Richard Gaona, Airbus vp for Executive and Private Aviation aircraft as the Gulfstream 450, Global 5000 and Falcon 900EX, priced accordingly at some $10 million less than an A319 ACJ. Airbus says the A318 Elite offers the same 4,000-nmi range of these rivals but with a 5,300 cu ft cabin volume— three times their size. The A318 Elite is also certified for a glideslope of 5.5 degrees, permitting operations into small airports such as London City. alone well beyond the 100-mark, worth some $6 billion. The widebody tally includes the first A380 superjumbo, one A330 and five A340s. “Last year we made 20 sales plus one widebody,” said Richard Gaona, Airbus vp for Executive and Private Aviation. He claims Airbus has consistently outsold the Boeing 737-based BBJ over the last four years and is team cannot pry more than six aircraft a year off the production line, and they are sold out for the next four years. But Gaona has a similar challenge: next available ACJ deliveries, he says, aren’t until 2011. So the score now stands at 125 Boeing 737-based BBJs versus 100 ACJs. A major reason for Airbus’s success is the introduction of the A318 Elite as a direct challenger to such Airbus A320 and long-range A340-600 jets. Falcon 7X Makes Its Dubai Debut Making its Dubai debut this week is Dassault’s Falcon 7X, which entered service when the first was delivered during the Paris Air Show in June. Among the first customers was Dassault scion and chairman Serge Dassault—his 7X is the one here. The next available delivery position for the $41 million trijet is in 2013. Dassault Falcon claimed more than 165 firm orders before the first 7X delivery and has since reported orders at 173. Orders include a commitment by NetJets Europe for 33 aircraft with deliveries starting in the second quarter of 2008. Dassault Falcon expects to deliver from 12 to 15 7X jets this year, and bring the rate to 40 per year for 2008 and 2009. The 6,000 nmi range aircraft can fly nonstop between cities such as New York and Riyadh, Paris and Singapore, and Rome and Los Angeles. The Falcon 7X is the first fly-by-wire business jet. 15 November 11, 2007 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

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Aviation Week Show News - November 11, 2007

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