Emirates CEO Tim Clark said that while he’s satisfied the 787-10 will be very reliable in service, because it’s a simple stretch of the already reliable 787-9, he doesn’t yet have the same comfort with the new Airbus jet, only 4 of which have been delivered so far.
Source: Manuel Belleli
On the other hand, those 4 A350s in service were delivered to his Gulf neighbor, Qatar Airlines chief executive Akbar Al Baker, who has been lauding the plane to Clark.
“Mr Akbar has been trying to get me to go look at his aeroplane,” said Clark. “He says it’s such a good aeroplane, the best one he’s had.”
Source: Airbus
“We’ll put all that into the pot and just see what the assessment is,” Clark said.
The industry expects Emirates to announce its choice at the Dubai Air Show in November, but Clark said the order may wait until Dubai’s new airport in Dubai is more developed and the carrier has evaluated whether it will hold onto the 777s due to come off lease in the next few years.
The competition remains open, with both Airbus and Boeing now enticed to sweeten their offers to close the deal.
Based on the article “Big order pending, Emirates has issues with Boeing’s 787-10” published in The Seattle Times
As I have said many times before over many months,it comes down to delivery. With only 4 Aircraft delivered this year,thats not even 1 per month.
ReplyDeleteThe schedule as of years ago was to be 5 per month in 2015. It does not matter how much Akbar Al Baker sings its praises, Clark will look at the dismal delivery rate and remember the A380 fiasco and go Boeing. Its a shame,with such a great product,that delivery should be its achilles heel.
Airbus has already pushed RR onto its back foot because of non deliveries. Airbus must really get a move on-but dont hold your breath.
I guess it was several times said that the production rate is the rate of entering in (not out) the FAL. This rate is since the beginning of 2nd quarter proven to be at 3 per month. This is maybe 1 quarter later than Airbus maybe planned, but I guess it qite to relly judge if it was 2 or 3. FAL is loaded up to MSN 32.
ReplyDeleteArgumenting production capilities during ramp only by delivery rates is quite nonsense. The loading of the frames now being delivered was over a year ago. The cycle time of the FAL will decrease, this is part of a ramp.
The delivery rate is 2 per month right now. MSN 14 is delivered today. And there are 2 deliveries planned each month from now. And the frames are at the expected state to support this.
MSN 8 is on the flightline, MSN15,11,16,18 are painted and at final FAL stage (engine attach). MSN 13,17 are being painted. MSN 12,18,19,20,21,22,24,23 are being outfitted before paint. The FAL times decreased already from much more than 1 year to less than 10 months. From MSN21 significant less rework/traveled work is to do.
So the next month will show if Airbus can achieve there ramp targets, more loadings, significant less time in FAL.
The plan is to deliver 15 frames this year and if you look on the FAL status there is no doubt that this will be achieved.