Presented by Fabrice Bregier, President and CEO of Airbus, these are some of the slides for a general overview of the A350 XWB Program.
Other presentations of the Investor Forum are available in this link:
17 December 2013
16 December 2013
Air Caraibes will buy 3 A350-1000 and lease another 3 A350-900.
French airline Air Caraibes announced plans for a $1,5 billion order for 3 A350-1000 aircraft and lease of further 3 smaller A350-900 in the largest order in it´s 10-year history.
High density lay-out.
The A350-900 will have a 380 seats configuration and the A350-1000 a 440 seat configuration, with 30% of seats more than its current A330, "finding a competitive advantage." The A350 has an exit limit of 440 passengers with the standard 4-door (per side) configuration.
The airline is renewing the entire long-haul fleet between 2016 and 2020. Air Caraibes will be the first French company with a A350-900 starting from December/2016, as Air France´s first aircraft, from an order of 25, will be delivered 2 years later in 2018.
Air Caraibes appears only in the 9th rank of French companies, with 1.2 million passengers, but it has become the most profitable of French airlines, increasing in 10 years its turnover by 8 and its workforce by 4.
Based on the article “Air Caraïbes s'offre l'A350 pour ses dix ans de transatlantique” published in Les Echos.
15 December 2013
Different colors for the new aircraft liveries have their meaning. A350 XWB will present a special black&white paint scheme for the cabin equipped A350 prototypes MSN2 and MSN5, while Boeing has presented the 777X in a dark red-burgundy.
Last month, during the 777X presentation in Dubai AirShow, marketing materials for the airplane, and the livery employed dark red -- burgundy -- as a color theme. It's a departure from Boeing's deep-blue brand, but they did something similar when it rebanded the 747-8 with orange livery.
The choice of burgundy for the 777X is no accident; “The choice of burgundy was not made overnight. Boeing had to complete quite a bit of research before deciding on their new color. Different colors can have different meanings, and Boeing did not want to end up insulting a particular culture or airline based on a wrong choice."
"Believe it or not, there has been quite a bit of work done on seeing what feelings and words that people relate with colors. Boeing found some key thoughts connected to the color burgundy, which they wanted passengers and airline customers to associate with the plane. Those words are vigor, elegance, refinement, high-end, richness, leadership, and maturity. Think of the color as a fine wine, in literal color and embodiment.” said Rob Pollack, vice president Advertising, Brand and Market Positioning with Boeing.
Airbus´ official color is blue as well as Boeing´s, but there have been many different liveries with some variation of their color roots.
Based on the article “Boeing Goes Burgundy on the 777X – Why? “ published in AirlineReporter
14 December 2013
6 months since the First Flight of the A350 XWB; 750 flight hours with 2 prototypes in the air and the other 3 certification prototypes on the Final Assembly Line.
MSN1 has passed 510 hours of Block Time in 110 missions or flight tests.
The MSN3 prototype, which joined the flight test campaign 4 months later (14/October/2013) has already complete 42 missions with 250 hours of Block Time.
Pictures available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/aircrafts/
The MSN3 second prototype has been more time in the air than the MSN1 in November and December.
Great progress of the certification test campaign with no important issues communicated by Airbus.
13 December 2013
Airbus CEO “We’ve always been very present in The Middle East”. Strata in Abu Dhabi manufactures the flap track fairings of the A350 XWB.
This year was Airbus’ biggest ever in Dubai, with 142 firm orders worth $40.4bn and a further 26 options totalling $3.6bn. “This region is booming and so they have a lot of ambition, they have a lot of growth, so they need a lot of aeroplanes, so yes, it was crazy when you put all the numbers together, absolutely,” Bregier says.
“We’ve always been very present in the region, of course. If we take Etihad, they started with Airbus aircraft ten years ago. With Emirates we also have a long-lasting relationship. Qatar Airways, for instance, was the launch customer of the A350, while Emirates is by far the biggest customer of the A380, with 140 aircraft ordered. Etihad has also become a very big customer of the A350 with the Airshow’s order of an additional 50 aircraft, so we know them very well. We are very close to them [and] we support their operations.”
The additional orders also will lead to more aircraft manufacturing in the region, particularly in the UAE through Abu Dhabi’s investment vehicle Mubadala’s aerospace production business Strata. The company, based in Al Ain, signed $5bn worth of new contracts with both Airbus and Boeing during the Dubai Airshow.
Airbus has been working with firm since its inception. “Strata is quite impressive because we started together in 2008 or 2009 and they have now achieved a level of performance which allows them to look for bigger packages, bigger parts of aerostructure,” Bregier says. “We’re continuously talking to them.”
Based on the interview with Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier published in Arabian Business
12 December 2013
Beluga capacity required for the ramp-up in the A350 XWB program could be fulfilled by a new A330-300 based transport.
Schematic diagrams of a planned development at Airbus’s UK wing facility further indicate that the A330 is the candidate for a high-capacity transport to succeed the A300-600ST Beluga.
Detailed diagrams for a Beluga line station at the Broughton plant show the plan view of the A300-600ST at the docking point overlaid by a larger aircraft whose dimensions are consistent with a modified A330-300.
Airbus has been examining potential candidate airframes to complement and replace its A300-600STs – of which it has five – in order to have sufficient capacity to ramp up A350 production.
The new line station would provide a weatherproof area for loading and unloading Beluga transports and would be located south of the runway and east of the wing-equipping facility.
Airbus’s supporting statement, in its planning application to the local council, says that wings manufactured at Broughton would be transferred from production hangars to external racks for short-term storage.
They would then be transferred to the new Beluga line station and either loaded onto the waiting jet or moved to internal wing racks until the aircraft arrives.
Based on the article “Airbus planning application hints at Bigger Beluga” published in FlightGlobal.
11 December 2013
The 777X has more orders and commitments than the A350-1000, which was launched in 2006.
• It took almost 13 years for the A380 to reach the exact same number of orders as the 777X did in one day.
• It took 6 years for the original 777 program to accumulate as many orders as the 777X (777-200, 777-200ER and 777-300)
• It took 7 years to gather that many 777-300ER orders
• The 777X commitment from Emirates for 150 airplanes has the same number of units as the first 4.8 years of original 777 orders
There’s no question the 777X is going to be a special airplane. But why has it taken off so quickly? As per Boeing, the 777X will have 12% better fuel efficiency than the A350-1000. In the chart below, Boeing points out the ability of the 777X to carry about 60 more passengers or fly 1,500 nautical miles further that the competition.
777X customers are all A350 main customers too.
- Lufthansa: 25 orders for A350
- Ethiad Airways: 62 orders for A350
- Qatar Airways: 80 orders for A350
- Emirates: 70 orders for A350
Based on the post “One for the books“ published in Randy´s Journal
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