Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 - (Page 54)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 Airbus Sets Sights on 8,000th A320 When it comes to market outlook, Airbus couldn’t have gotten it more wrong than on the A320. The business case was built on selling around 600 aircraft; now, Airbus officials have in their sight the sale of the 8,000th of the family of aircraft. Admittedly, that milestone will not be reached until 2018. “We are only about halfway through the life of the A320,” says Colin Stewart, Airbus vp for marketing. Airbus has now more than 6,100 firm orders for the aircraft family, which first reached customer hands in April 1988. More than 3,500 aircraft have been delivered since then to 210 customers. With that in mind, Airbus says it spends about $155 million a year to improve the aircraft. By 2011, Airbus COO for customers, John Leahy, wants to see a 4-5% improvement in fuel burn. A key step in that direction would be the addition of winglets. Airbus will undertake a new set of flight trials this year, after tests with an initial design weren’t deemed convincing enough to proceed with the upgrade. Weight reductions also are being looked at, Leahy says. Airbus is on a track to boost output to 40 aircraft per month—from 36 currently—although present turmoil in the airline sector may yet cause the aircraft maker to slow its ramp-up. But Leahy notes that even after cancellations, the A320 remains oversold, with slots not available until around 2012/2013. Not on the cards is re-engining the A320 with Pratt’s geared turbofan, says Leahy. Other Airbus and Pratt officials concede that placing a new engine on an existing airframe is not an ideal solution. The strength of demand for the A320 in the commercial marketplace has one negative side effect for Airbus. Not enough used A320s are becoming available soon to launch the planned A320 passenger-to-cargo conversion program. As a result it will likely incur a delay of a year or two. —Robert Wall Air France Wants New Jet Boeing’s decision to abort its 737 replacement study and Airbus’s lack of urgency in putting the A320 follow-on on the front burner is irking one of the aircraft makers’ most important customers, Air France-KLM. The usually reserved management for the Franco-Dutch airline group is unabashed in expressing its disappointment about the endof-the-next-decade timeframe Airbus and Boeing have set for the new single-aisle designs coming to market. “The decision to keep delaying the nominal entry-intoservice dates is not good news for our industry,” argues Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO of Air France-KLM. “Weneed something today. We cannot wait,” adds Pierre Valley, Air France’s chief of fleet planning. Air France-KLM can possibly stretch their current inventory a while longer, but by 2015 a new aircraft is needed. A n d i t ’s n o t j u s t a m a r g i n a l improvement Europe’s biggest airline is seeking, but a combination of new engine and new airframe that will provide a true leap in fuel economy. While Airbus and Boeing have argued that they are waiting for technologies to mature to deliver the approximately 20% improvement in fuel burn airlines want, Spinetta says “the technologies are there. They are perfectly known.” Louis Gallois, CEO of Airbusparent EADS, says “we are still hesitating over the narrow-body engine selection; we are afraid of launching a new model that could be obsolete three or four years later.” However, Valley believes airlines are being held hostage to a game of ‘poker’ between Airbus and Boeing, with neither wanting to show its hand too early on how it will proceed in replacing its single-aisle offering. Spinetta is irate because, he argues, the current products have improved only marginally since they were first launched. However, Airbus CEO Tom Enders counters “we have made tremendous improvements in terms of efficiency and fuel burn.” He stresses “these are not the same aircraft that were built and delivered 20 years ago.” One likely reason for the reluctance of both Airbus and Boeing to act is that the current product lines are selling extremely well. Backlogs for the 737 and A320 families are healthy, and there is a concern that announcing a replacement could make obsolete the current offering. —Robert Wall Assembly of first Chinese Airbus, an A320 for Aer Dragon, begins next month. ‘Made in China’ Airbus The first A320 sections to be used by Airbus for final assembly in China are now arriving at Tianjin, the site of Airbus’s newest assembly line. Assembly of the first aircraft, an A320 ordered by Aer Dragon for lease to Sichuan Airlines, is to start in mid-August. Customer delivery is planned for 2Q 2009. Eventually, Airbus expects four aircraft per month to roll off the Chinese final assembly line. Although Airbus has put much legwork into preparing the final assembly site and personnel, it has some room to maneuver. Production of A320 family aircraft at Toulouse is to be curtailed as China ramps up; if the process in Tianjin is slow, Toulouse should be able to fill any capacity shortfalls. Tianjin will build both A320s and A319s (the second aircraft off the line), although A321s could be added relatively easily in case the Chinese market follows the trend to larger seat-counts seen in other sectors, says Alain Flourens, Airbus program manager for single-aisle aircraft. Airbus’s China investment comes in two parts. The first is the final assembly facility, which is a jv with a Chinese consortium—Airbus holds 51% and the Chinese 49% share is split between the Tianjin Free Trade Zone (60%), AVIC 1 (20%) and AVIC 2 (20%). The second element of the new Airbus facility is the delivery center, which is wholly owned by the aircraft maker. The entire operation is set up in a free trade area, so Airbus doesn’t have to pay import duties on tooling or on the sections it delivers. Much of the tooling is going to be exactly the same as in Europe, although some may be sourced locally. —Robert Wall 54 July 14, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 Contents Thirty More Years CFM Reveals New Engine Boeing Reduces Forecast UAVs’ Quiet Revolution Finmeccanica: U.S. Success A Plethora of AESAs BAE North America Plus L-3 Becomes a Prime Better Late Than Never A Peek Behind the Curtain China’s J-10 Revealed Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Breaking LM’s Hegemony

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

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