A350-800 remains scheduled for delivery in September 2016.

The orders of the A350-800 model are only being cancelled or converted to bigger models -900 or -1000. With a backlog of just 84 aircraft and a spate of cancellations and conversions to the larger A350-900, many observers are waiting Airbus action with the smaller model. US Airways, the type’s largest customer, could convert to the A350-900 their orders if the merger with American go through, in order to avoid overlap with the 787-9.

Instead of cancelling the A350-800 model, Airbus would likely shift the sequence of the entry-into-service of the A350; right now, only one A350-800 is scheduled for delivery in September 2016 (to lessor ILFC), according to one data base, with several more following in 2017–when the more popular A350-1000 is scheduled to enter service.

Airbus officially says no re-sequence has been made; “No change in sequence A350-900 EIS H2 2014, A350-800 EIS mid-2016 and A350-1000 mid-2017,” said a spokesperson.


Based on the article “Analyzing A350 backlog” published in Leeham News

Don´t panic. There is no emergency to decide about the A350-1100 and also there is more time to optimize the A350-800 model. Fabrice Brégier prefers to focus the team on the A350-900 certification, ramp-up and A350-1000 development.

Since Boeing announced an extended version of its 777 to more than 400 seats version, it is normal that Airbus looks what they could do.

“But this is only a preliminary examination, non-emergency and we have made no decision” said Airbus President and CEO Brégier. 

Airbus is very satisfied with the current positioning of the A350 on the niche of the 300 to 350 seats, which is doing the bulk of the request.

“It was A350´s success what led Boeing to launch an extended version of the 777” added Brégier.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aircrafts/

Concerning the A350-800 version, “The market has evolved since the launch of the program in 2007, moving to aircraft with more large capacity, such as the A350-900.”

“This leaves more time to optimize the 800 version. Its delivery is still scheduled for 2016, but we will be able to adapt if the market goes further towards the 900 and 1000 versions” said Brégier.


Based on the article “Fabrice Brégier : «Airbus dégagera 10% de marge si l’A350 tient ses objectifs »” published in Les Echos

The first “big problem” for A350 XWB: no white tails until 2020.

Airbus has flown its second test and certification A350-900 on its first flight. But there is a problem. Not a technical problem, and not a lack of interest.

The problem is that there is so much demand for the A350 XWB that EADS CEO, Tom Enders said last week in Sydney it would currently take until 2020 for an order for an A350 to be delivered.

While this is a ‘good’ problem for Airbus, in that it can’t build A350s fast enough, it would be on the face of it, quite a disappointment for Virgin Australia or Qantas should they decide they need this airliner’s range and payload capacity, which in the initial form could fly a typical three class 325 passenger configuration non-stop between east coast Australia and west coast America.

However, Mr Enders has said Airbus would consider increasing production rates later in this decade under some circumstances, a non-committal assessment also offered by others in Airbus management on recent occasions.



Based on the article ”Airbus A350′s first big problem? A seven year waiting list!” published in Plane Talking

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker confident A350 to be delivered next year, in 12 months.

Qatar Airways, the launch customer for A350, expects Airbus to start delivering the aircraft by the second half of next year and plans to order more planes next month, the airline's chief executive said last week. The Gulf carrier has ordered 80 A350 jets.

"We are confident that Airbus will deliver the A350 by the second half of 2014," Akbar al Baker said on the sidelines of an event to mark Qatar Airways' entry into an airline alliance.

His comments were in line with Airbus's Head of Program Didier Evrard, who had said earlier that the aim was to deliver the aircraft in the second half of 2014, in 12 months.

Last week, Boeing's chief executive acknowledged that the 787 had below average dispatch reliability (which refers to how often a plane leaves on time). But al-Baker said that was not the case with the aircrafts owned by Qatar Airways; "We have above average reliability with our 787s because we take care of them."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aircrafts/

He added that the airline was not interested in the new stretched version of the Dreamliner, the 787-10X. "We are not interested in the 10X because the size and economies of the plane are similar to the A350-900," he said.

Qatar Airway's al-Baker said the airline would place another plane order during the Dubai Airshow this month, billed one of the largest industry events in the region. "I won't tell you what the order is, but there will be one," he said.

Al-Baker said last week the airline was not interested in ordering the 777X; "We don't know anything about the airplane. We can't just compare with the size of aircraft. We are just waiting for Boeing to offer us the aircraft and to show us what the aircraft is going to do," he said.




Based on the article “Qatar Airways says A350 delivery on schedule; plans order in Dubai” published in Reuters.

A350 Backlog before Dubai Airshow

Before the Dubai Show, this is the A350’s backlog status summarized by Aspire Aviation for Leeham News.

To date, the A350 has won 759 orders from 39 different customers (excluding Kingfisher´s order for 5 A350-800s). [764 orders in Airbus official figures]

After slow sales in 2011 and 2012, 2013 has been an excellent rebound year for the A350, its second best behind 2007, with 182 orders to date.

There are several upcoming fleet replacement decisions (ANA, Qantas) and order officialization (South African Airways) that could be decided in coming months. Additionally to the Dubai announcements, of course.


The chart below shows A350 orders by year since it launched:

The geographic breakdown of the A350’s orders shows that Asia and the Middle East currently account for more than 55% of the program’s orders.

The A350 program backlog by model is presented in the following chart:

The following table summarizes the orders by mission type.

Based on the article “Analyzing A350 backlog” published in Leeham News

Airbus proposes a standard 18in (45cm) seat in order to try to compete against the Boeing 777X before it is launched. “A350-1000 offers better-quality rest than 777X” is the message.

Airbus is promoting comfort benefits from a broader seat width in a campaign which appears to be a pre-emptive strike on the impending launch of Boeing’s 777X.

Competing against the A350-1000, the 777X will be a stretch of the strong-selling 777-300ER, which a number of customers opt to fit with 10-abreast seats in the economy cabin.

But the 10-abreast configuration requires 17in (43cm) seats, and Airbus has unveiled research which, it claims, supports its view that a wider seat offers better-quality rest.

Airbus is using the research findings to underline the benefit of its standard 18in seat, which the airframer fits to the 9-abreast A350 as well as the 8-abreast A330.

The 777-300ER has a wider fuselage than either type, which enables it to accommodate the 10-abreast layout by sacrificing seat width – thereby providing additional revenue and improving the per-seat economics.

A350 when competing against the 787 will be “the extra wide body” but when competing against the 777X, with a wider fuselage, the passenger comfort and seat width will be the topic used by the marketing team.

Emirates, the largest operator of the 777-300ER, configures the type with 10-abreast seating, and Boeing argues that the demand for such configurations on the aircraft is increasing; from 15% in 2010 to 69% of all 777-300ER deliveries on 2012 were 10-abreast layouts.

But Airbus says the air transport sector should adopt an 18in standard for long-haul flights, and has presented a study undertaken in co-operation with the UK’s London Sleep Centre to back the call.
The polysomnographic test was really limited, involving only six passengers in a simulated cabin.
Recordings of physiological sleep measurements suggested that, when using an 18in seat against a 17in seat, the onset of sleep came 6min earlier and brainwaves showed fewer and less-frequent disturbances.

"Compared [with] the 17in seat... there’s hardly any disturbances in brainwave patterns particularly in the first half of sleep where we have most of our deep-sleep period," says London Sleep Centre medical director Irshaad Ebrahim. "The different sleep stages... mimic what we’d find in a normal sleep in our own bed."

Airbus head of passenger comfort Kevin Keniston refers to the 17in width as the "crusher" seat, but rival Boeing scorns the airframer’s campaign.

"I'm surprised by our competitor coming out with an arbitrary, obviously self-serving standard for the industry," says Boeing Commercial Airplanes senior vice-president for global sales John Wojick, pointing out that its customers can select various seat widths – including 17.5in and 18.5in – for their aircraft.

"Our objective is to provide the travelling public with a value choice. Many people are very price sensitive and they're looking for the opportunity to go visit family, friends or a vacation site, and they're price sensitive – even if that means sitting in a 17in seat."

Wojick points out that Airbus has conveniently selected its own 18in seat width as the baseline for an industry standard, adding: "Why not demand that everybody has a first-class seat?"

Sorted by seat width

A350 fuselage of 5.61m 10-abreast economy configuration with 16,4” seat 3-4-3
A330 fuselage of 5.28m 9-abreast economy configuration with 16,5” seat 3-3-3
777 fuselage of 5.87m 10-abreast economy configuration with 17” seat 3-4-3
787 fuselage of 5.46m 9-abreast economy configuration with 17,2” seat 3-3-3
A330 fuselage of 5.28m 8-abreast economy configuration with 17,5” seat 2-4-2
A350 fuselage of 5.61m 9-abreast economy configuration with 17,7” seat 3-3-3
777 fuselage of 5.87m 9-abreast economy configuration with 17,9” seat 2-5-2
777 fuselage of 5.87m 9-abreast economy configuration with 18” seat 3-3-3
787 fuselage of 5.46m 8-abreast economy configuration with 18,5” seat 2-4-2
A350 fuselage of 5.61m 8-abreast economy configuration with 19” seat 2-4-2

Based on the article “Airbus and Boeing spar over seat-width benefits” published in FlightGlobal

A350-900 development is “on track but there are a lot of challenges” with the ramp-up.

A350 Head of Program Mr. Evrard said the development of the A350-900, the first version of the current 3-member A350 family, is on track, but he acknowledged that there are "a lot of challenges."

Airbus expects to be producing 1 aircraft a month by next January 2014, increasing to 3/month by early 2015 and gradually ramping up to 10/month by 2018. Airbus may consider higher rates after that, Evrard said, though no decisions on that have yet been made.

The Airbus officials stressed, however, that the ability of suppliers to keep up with its plans is critical for the success of the A350 program.

Evrard said Airbus has encountered relatively minor issues during flight testing over the past 4 months, including some software glitches that were quickly ironed out.





Based on the article “Airbus Mulls an Extra Stretch for A350 Jetliner” published in The Wall Street Journal