As Airbus is preparing for the industrial phase of the stretched A350-1000, the company is expanding capacity at its final assembly line in Toulouse. It is adding a third station 50 where the current station 59 is located, and station 59, which is used for sections preparation, will move to the other side of the final assembly line.
Currently, two of the four station 40s are used for wing assembly and two for testing, but once the second part of the final assembly line is completed, all four stations will be used for wing assembly. Further integration and outfitting work is taking place in the four station 30 bays, which are still under construction and will be used from the end of 2014. Airbus has decided to add a fifth station 30 by the end of 2015 to increase capacity.
Head of Program Mr. Didier Evrard said that the set-up will be sufficient for the planned production rate of 10 aircraft per month, and that it also has capacity reserves to go beyond that threshold if market demand is strong enough.
Airbus will be at the production rate of one per month by the end of this year, and a rate of three per month by the end of 2014. Evrard pointed out that he expected strong demand for the -1000 variant and that Airbus now has the flexibility to mix production between the -900 and the -1000, up to around a 50/50 split.
Based on the article “Airbus Sets A350-900 Service Entry Target, Expands Production Capacity” published in Aviationweek
Spirit AeroSystems announced last week that Kevin Matthies has joined the company as Vice President, Airbus & A350 XWB programs.
Matthies will have responsibility for A350 program management and be the deputy for all Airbus programs at Spirit, according to a news release from the company.
Matthies previously held positions with Raytheon, Hughes and General Dynamics. Most recently, he was with Raytheon Missile Systems as president of the Javelin Joint Venture between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. He also served as program director for the Excalibur and Stinger programs.
Currently Spirit workpackages, specially in the central fuselage, are the bottle neck in the A350 XWB ramp-up.
Based on the article “Spirit names Kevin Matthies as vice president, Airbus programs” published in The Wichita Eagle
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
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.
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
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, 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."
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.
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
