1st MLG-Door for A350-1000 delivered.

Daher has delivered to Airbus the 1st main landing gear door for the A350-1000, which will be used during the kinematics test program set to be carried out on the landing gear. 

Daher is a French Tier1 for Airbus in the A350 XWB program with headquarter at Tarbes, that additionally to the Design & Build contract for the main landing gear doors (MLGD) it has responsibility for several other Work Packages as parts for the engine environment, elementary parts made of thermoplastic composites and also integrated logistics services.

“This 1st component comes exactly 4 years after the same part for the -900 version and on the exact date of need approved with Airbus over a year ago, which is definitely testimony to our commitment to our customer” said Nicolas Orance, Director of Daher’s Aerospace & Defense Business Unit. 

“The landing gear doors required innovations to optimize their design and manufacture, using the latest equipment for automated fiber placement,” explained Christophe Berger, Industrial Director at Daher.

Based on the press release “Daher delivers its first main landing gear door for the Airbus A350-1000”

A350 MSN3 prototype will never fly again. To Aeroscopia Museum.

A350 MSN3 flying prototype was airborne on 14/Oct/2013 and she participated in the Certification campaign with 218 flights until certification and more than 870 flight hours.

Source: jlroch

Last March/2015 the Trent XWB engines were removed and the aircraft was stored close to the FAL in Toulouse.

Source: dn280tls

This prototype will be transferred to Aeroscopia Museum –in the other side of the Toulouse airport- in coming months and she will be exposed with other Airbus prototypes of A400M, Concorde, A300B and Super Guppy.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

Aeroscopia Museum, developed with Airbus support, is also the starting point of Airbus´ Toulouse production facilities tour.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

Huge loan from European Investment Bank to support Rolls-Royce´s development of A350-1000 engine.

Rolls-Royce will receive a £280 (381€ or $425) million loan to help develop the company's new engines.

Source: Rolls-Royce

The 7-year loan, from the European Investment Bank, is one of the largest ever agreed between the bank and a UK company and will support the development of the higher thrust version of the Trent XWB aero-engine made in Derby.

The European Investment Bank has loaned Rolls-Royce more than £723 (984€) million for investment in the UK in the last decade, as well as supporting research and development by the company elsewhere in Europe.

Source: Airbus

Jonathan Taylor, vice president of the European Investment Bank, said: "The European Investment Bank is committed to supporting long-term investment in research and development across Europe.”

"We are pleased to have helped strengthen manufacturing by Rolls-Royce in Derby over many years.

"Investment to help develop new engines builds on the unique strengths of Rolls-Royce and will help to ensure cutting-edge skills and engineering techniques build better and more efficient engines for the global airline market."

Source: Airbus

The 97,000lb-thrust Trent XWB-97 engine is currently undergoing a rigorous test regime as it prepares for its first flight later this year and subsequent entry into service on the A350 XWB-1000 in 2017.

Based on the article “Huge £280m loan will give thrust to new Rolls-Royce engine” published in DerbyTelegraph

1 additional A350-900 for Air Caraïbes.

Dubreuil Group has ordered 1 additional Airbus A350-900 for Air Caraïbes on lease from Aercap last June/2015.

Source: mrtcnuzn44

Air Caraïbes, which earned a net profit of EUR 17 million in the past financial year, announced on February that they were planning to order 5 A350 XWB.

Finally only 1 additional aircraft will join Air Caraïbes fleet.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

Meanwhile, a project of new low cost long-haul airline, that will be called 'Sunline', is also in preparation for June/2016.

Source: Manuel Belleli

Dubreuil Group announced several strategic initiatives to accelerate the development of its airbusiness.

Air Caraïbes transported 1.228.000 passengers in 2014 (an increase of 0.3% from 2013) with a record turnover of EUR 358 million.

Marc Rochet, Chairman of Executive Board of Air Caraïbes said: "in an extremely competitive environment, Air Caraïbes demonstrated once more, with the involvement of all its staff, the confidence of its customers, to the rigor of its management, its ability to record another year of success. Sustainable growth is the priority of Air Caraïbes and we intend to continue in this direction."

 

Group Dubreuil wants Air Caraïbes to be the 1^st French private airline and an additional A350-900, available in June/2017, has been added to the original order of 2013.

Source: A380_TLS_A350

This early availability schedule indicates that the aircraft could be a flying prototype (probably MSN5) that need to be refurbished in 2016.

The A350 deliveries (3+1 A350-900 and 3 A350-1000) are scheduled between December/2016 and 2024.

The creation of a new subsidiary airline of the group called Sunline was decided and Dubreuil Group will order 1 new Airbus A330-300, (MTOW 242 tons model) in order to start operations in one year.

Sunline will be based on a "new model" of long-haul low-cost carrier and will include wifi and video for its passengers.

Based on the article “Un Airbus A350 et une filiale low cost pour Air Caraïbes” published in Air Journal

A350 Delivery plan for 2015.

After some delay on deliveries in July and August, this is the realistic plan for next A350 deliveries based on the current FAL status.

 

Source: Airbus

The delay in the 3Q/2015 is planned to be recovered during 4Q/2015.

 

From the initial delivery plan defined in the beginning of the year (Q1/2015:#1, Q2/2015:#3, Q3/2015:#5, Q4/2015:#6+2) current delivery plan more challenging for last months of the year (Q1/2015:#1, Q2/2015:#3, Q3/2015:#2, Q4/2015:#9+2).

 

Source: Airbus

Next deliveries will be as follow:

 

In September: (currently on the flightline)

·         MSN15 Vietnam Airlines

·         MSN8 Qatar Airways

Source: Jujug Spotting

 

In October: (currently on the flightline)

·         MSN11 Qatar Airways

·         MSN16 Vietnam Airlines

·         MSN18 Finnair

 

In November: (currently painted, on interior completion and engines installation phase.)

·         MSN13 Qatar Airways

·         MSN17 Vietnam Airlines

·         MSN19 Finnair

Source: Airbus

 

 

In December:

·         MSN20 Finnair

·         MSN12 Qatar Airways

·         MSN24 TAM

 

Source: Jujug Spotting

This is to comply with Airbus official deliveries target. But internally, FAL and flightline have the objective of 2 additional aircraft that are currently in painting and structural assembly phase:

·         MSN22 Finnair

·         MSN21 Qatar Airways

 

Source: A380_TLS_A350

 

The official target of Airbus is to deliver 15 aircraft n 2015. But Finnair and Qatar Airways are expecting their MSN22 and MSN21 by Christmas.

 

First 2 A350s for TAM will be repainted by 2018.

LATAM Airlines Group unveiled a new logo last month in Sao Paulo and said it will repaint its fleet of more than 300 aircraft as and when they are due for maintenance, expecting to have its new branding on its entire fleet in 2018.

Source: Airbus

“We are doing it in an intelligent way,” said LATAM chief marketing officer Jerome Cadier, adding that the airline wants to minimize taking aircraft out of service for the paint job.

LATAM’s new logo is primarily in indigo and coral, with the airline’s name presented in bold white letters. The carrier said the choice of indigo “falls between red and blue” - the main colors of TAM and LAN. Coral, the 2nd color, is a symbol of “energy and passion”, said the airline.

Source: Airbus

Cadier said the airline will debut its new paint job in the first half of 2016, before the 2016 Summer Olympics, which is being hosted in Rio de Janeiro.

Cadier said the group’s first A350, to be operated by TAM and expected to be delivered by Airbus at the end of this year, will still feature TAM’s existing livery.

Source: Jujug Spotter

The 2^nd A350 is also painted with TAM red and white livery. These 2 aircraft will be repainted later with LATAMs new logo.

“We have a window in which any change to the livery has to be done 12 to 18 months in advance,” he said.

LATAM expects to spend up to $40 million on the rebranding, but notes that this is only the cost of the physical rebranding itself, which includes repainting aircraft, providing new uniforms for staff and changing airport signage. Cadier estimates that at least 80% of the $40 million will go towards aircraft repainting.

LAN and TAM closed their merger in 2012, creating Latin America’s biggest airline group. It has passenger subsidiaries in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Based on the article “LATAM's entire fleet to have new livery by 2018” published in Flight Global.

IAG is considering fitting a premium-economy cabin on Iberia A350s

Iberia will launch a premium economy class in A350s in light of the widening gap between economy and Business Plus fares.

It will be a long-time coming for Iberia since it shelved its first class offerings in October/2004.

Iberia is currently analyzing possible seats but the final supplier is not decided yet.

In regards to an ongoing study of a potential premium-economy offering on long-haul routes, Iberia´s CEO Gallego said: "What we are evaluating is if the premium economy makes sense… but we are analysing in which fleet, because maybe it's not good for all of them."

He added: "Maybe we will need more densified aircraft to compete."

Source: Iberia

In 2014 Iberia detected an increase in the business class reservations for European and transatlantic routes and Iberia is increasing it´s capacity by more than 10% in 2015.

Coupled with the sale of exit-row seats and a free middle seat, Iberia saw its seating-related ancillary revenue skyrocket 165% and upgrading 157% from 2013 to 2014.

Its new, simpler website also drove an 11% increase in conversion rates over the same period.

Source: Airbus

Iberia plans to receive the first A350 in 2018.

Based on the article "Iberia implantará en sus aviones la clase business low cost" published in preferente.com