Russia’s Aeroflot will delay delivery of its 22 Airbus A350 XWBs to between 2018 and 2023. Deliveries were originally scheduled from between 2018 and 2020. The decision was approved at a company shareholders meeting
The carrier did not comment on the move, but industry experts say there are two possible reasons for the delay.
One is that Aeroflot has converted part of its A350-800 order into -900s. The company said it will now get 8 -800s and 14 -900s, though earlier the order was split into 18 -800s and 4 -900s.
The second possible reason is the carrier’s order for 16 Boeing 777s, which experts believe could cause overcapacity in the widebody segment of the Russian market. Deliveries started at the beginning of the year.
Aeroflot shareholders approved the change to the makeup of its order for 22 A350s. As part of the original deal signed in summer 2007, the airline planned to take 18 A350-800s and four A350-900s. Now Aeroflot wants to have more of the larger -900s, bringing their number to 14 while the -800 order is reduced from 18 to eight. According to an Aeroflot report, the deal is valued at $3.1 million, not counting custom duties.
The aircraft are expected to begin entering the airline's fleet in 2018, but the order conversion extends the delivery period to 2023. If deliveries are delayed, Airbus will grant a $25 million discount for another Aeroflot order for five Airbus A321-200s, according to the airline's report. Leasing agent GTLK took the $291.5 million order on behalf of the airline, and will lease the -200s to Aeroflot for 12 years. The carrier already has two of the CFM56-5B3/3-powered A321s in operation; the others are expected to be delivered by the end of the year.
Aeroflot fleet includes 22 Airbus A330s, 23 A321s, 51 A320s and 15 A319s; four Boeing 777s, five 767s and one 737; six Ilyushin Il-96s; and 10 Sukhoi Superjet 100s.
Based on the article “Aeroflot plans fleet growth but delays A350 until 2018” published in Flight Global
Airbus COO Günter Butschek said in an interview at Tagesspiegel newspaper that Germany should pay the remaining 600 million euros of a disputed development loan for Airbus's A350 XWB, now Airbus has allocated work to German employees.
The German government had demanded that Airbus guarantee a certain amount of the work on the A350 plane would be done in Germany as a condition for paying out the remaining part of the loan.
Chief Operating Officer Günter Butschek said in the interview at Tagesspiegel that Airbus had now assigned 4.000 of the A350 jobs to Germany, 250% more than targeted, while the German proportion of research&development is far beyond the 1/3 promised.
"We have therefore far exceeded our promises and believe there is now no reason to withhold the remaining payment," Herr Butschek said. "The ball is now in the government's court".
Any payout will have to wait for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives to conclude coalition talks after her party won September's federal election but failed to gain enough votes for a majority.
"The conditions for the payment of the loan to Airbus can only be determined by the future government," a spokeswoman for the federal ministry of economics said. "The ministry does not want to bind the future government to any decisions made on this matter at the present time."
Based on the article “Airbus exec says time for Germany to pay A350 loan in full” published in Reuters
SriLankan Airlines and International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) signed (07-Oct-2013) a 12-year lease agreement for three A350-900 aircraft. The aircraft will support the airline's long-haul fleet renewal.
The A350-900s are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-84 and are part of an operating lease agreement, which has an anticipated delivery timeline between Jul-2016 and Sep-2016.
ILFC currently has two A330-200s and one A340-300 on lease with SriLankan. SriLankan CEO Kapila Chandrasena said, "This would be the first time the A350 family aircraft will enter our fleet, and it marks a significant step towards the growth of the airline. SriLankan has placed direct orders for 4 additional A350-900 aircraft with Airbus, and we believe that this new generation, fuel-efficient aircraft will play a leading role in the airline's long-haul operations in time to come. We are indeed pleased that ILFC will be providing us with the first 3 aircraft, and look forward to building on the strong ties we have established with ILFC."
Based on the article “ILFC and SriLankan Airlines sign 12-year lease agreement for three A350-900s” published in CAPA
EADS CEO Tom Enders spoke at Australia’s National Aviation Press Club: “We are on track to deliver the first aircraft at the end of 2014. It’s going to be a great aircraft.” He went on to say “The 350 is a bit behind the 787 in terms of schedule,” and noted that 750 A350s have been sold. “I was quite pleased that we were trailing the 787 because by taking our time we could learn some of the lessons from that project,” he said.
Airbus, like all OEMs, has had its share of program delays. But the A350 seems to be doing well in its testing. While the program ran into some delay earlier, Airbus appears to have worked through the big issues and testing is going well. It is being an impressive management of the A350 program.
Whereas Boeing got its 787 program started earlier, much of that program’s timing advantage was lost due to delays and technical hitches. Then came 747-8 program glitches, and Boeing was caught off guard with the success of the neo. These events in turn meant the 777X program slowed down as engineers were moved to fixing 787 and 747-8 issues. Boeing has a lot on its plate, when one considers it is also developing the MAX.
Which, of course, meant Airbus benefited. Airbus was at the back end of painful lessons from the A400M and A380. Airbus therefore was able to deploy lessons from its own program upsets to ensure the A350 went much more smoothly.
Boeing’s 777X program is now in catch up mode, it will be 2019 or 2020 before the first airplane is delivered. That will be up to six years after the A350.
Based in the article “Impressive A350 progress” published in AirInsight
The strongest prospect for an A350 order in Australia would be from Virgin Australia, which has been officially open to considering an order for the Airbus or from Boeing’s competing 787 range even before Boeing began to make serious references to going ahead in the near future with its 777-X program, which is widely tipped to be officially launched next month.
The issue that strikes the casual observer of Virgin Australia as ‘obvious’ is that of finance for any new fleet decisions.
However, depending on how the various major partners in Virgin Australia Holdings sort out their potentially overlapping ambitions for the carrier, a solution might be for such a partner to ‘invest’ some of its Airbus or Boeing orders in the growth of Virgin Australia.
On the other hand, Qantas is considering the Airbus A350 and Boeing 777X as potential replacements for its ageing fleet of Boeing 747 jumbo jets.
In a presentation held in Seattle some weeks ago, ahead of today's delivery flight of Jetstar's first Boeing 787, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce flagged what he called "the next big decisions" on the airline's fleet.
Qantas would seem to be a less likely prospect for the A350 series given its dual commitments to a ‘simplified’ fleet with fewer types, and its access to 787 Dreamliner options, between 2017 and 2020.
It seems that you could get reasonable odds on Airbus ramping up production rates on the A350 in the near future, and that would change the outlook for sales in Australia in a very positive way.
Based on the article “Qantas mulls Airbus A350, Boeing 777X to replace Boeing 747s” published in Australian Business Traveller.
Etihad Airways chooses not to be a launch partner for new commercial aircraft, preferring to wait until any potential problems have been resolved. And this cautious move has paid dividends this year as Etihad escaped 787 and A380 problems.
James Hogan, president and CEO of Etihad, revealed the Abu Dhabi carrier makes a conscious decision not to be a launch customer, a claim usually viewed as a proud moment.
“While we are an airline which prides itself on having a young, modern fleet, we are never the first to introduce a new aircraft type. This is our choice,” Hogan said. “We prefer to wait until new aircraft types have entered service with other carriers, and any technical issues are resolved, before we introduce the same models.”
The cautious decision is typical of how Etihad has grown its business, and flies in the face of the approaches taken by Gulf rival carriers Emirates and Qatar Airways.
Dubai-based Emirates is highly expected to be announced as a launch partner for Boeing’s new 777X fleet later this year and was one of the first airlines to begin using the Airbus A380.
Likewise Qatar Airways will be the first customer to receive Airbus’ new A350.
Etihad will have been congratulating themselves for their wary approach in January this year however, as all Boeing 787 Dreamliners were grounded, including Qatar’s fleet of 5.
Instead, Hogan confirmed Etihad will take 41 787-9 Dreamliners from the start of next year, the Airbus A380 – which has also suffered minor issues since its launch – late in 2014 and the A350 from 2017.
Based on the article “Etihad CEO: «We Choose Not To Launch New Aircraft»” published in Gulf Business
Boeing shares a healthy and “strong” relationship with fast-growing Qatar Airways, despite all the problems faced by its beleaguered Dreamliner aircraft, a senior Boeing executive has said.
“He [Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO] has been amazingly supportive [about Dreamliner’s problems] and I appreciate that, Boeing appreciates that,” said Marty Bentrott, vice president of sales at Boeing Commercial.
“The relationship is very strong; it’s kind of like a marriage. Sometimes things are okay and sometimes you’re fighting a little bit. He has high expectations and why shouldn’t he, he runs one of the greatest airlines in the world,” said Bentrott.
Qatar Airways, one of the 787’s major buyers, was forced to scale down expansion plans because of the grounding of all 787s in January this year.
“I wanted to launch 15 routes this year, now I can only launch 10. I am very unhappy,” Al Baker said in May.
While Bentrott acknowledged the issue, he stressed that it had been resolved.
“There have been some challenges and I do not think any airline CEO would be feeling very positive if they had 5 airplanes sitting on the ground. We’ve moved on past that and I think our biggest focus right now is helping that airline restore the reliability levels of the 787 to what we’ve promised and they should expect.”
Bentrott would not comment whether Boeing compensated Qatar Airways following the grounding, after Al Baker said he would demand remuneration.
The relationship also showed signs of healing again at the Paris Air Show this year, where Al Baker announced a commitment for more Boeing planes.
“Qatar is one of the strongest growing airlines in the region and with the development of the new airport in Doha, there’s going to be a lot of aircraft both delivered to Qatar Airways and sold in the future to Qatar Airways,” Bentrott said.
“They, like Emirates, will start looking at a replacement cycle of some of their existing products probably around 2020, so the demand in Qatar is going to be very strong.”
Based on the article “Boeing, Qatar Airways Are In A Kind Of “Marriage” – Senior Exec” published in Golf Business.
