Airbus SAS is churning out its A330 wide-body aircraft in record numbers and has rival Boeing Co to thank for the 17-year-old jet’s second wind. Production of the twin-aisle jet will rise to 10 a month by mid-2013, from eight now, to satisfy “unprecedented” demand, the Toulouse, France-based manufacturer has said. The jet, which sells for about $200 million at list price, is a favourite in the fleets of carriers, including Delta Air Lines Inc and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
“There’s frustrated demand out there for the plane,” Airbus Sales Chief John Leahy said in an interview. “I wish I could get my hands on another 15 or 20 even for 2012.”
Airbus is revving up production as Boeing grapples with more than three years of delays on its 787 Dreamliner, announced in 2003 as an alternative to the A330 after Airbus quashed demand for the Boeing 767 model that’s almost twice the age of the A330. Boeing’s Dreamliner woes have left dozens of airlines with holes in their fleets, driving some to other aircraft.
The A330 twin-engine aircraft that seats 250 to 330 passengers and entered service in 1994 flies as far as 6,450 nautical miles, servicing routes across the US or the North Atlantic, as well as many intra-Asian connections. The larger A330-300 can cover about 5,500 nautical miles.
Longest fuselage
Cathay operates the largest fleet of A330, with 31 aircraft in service, followed by Emirates and Delta Air. Airbus also offers the A340, with an identical cabin width, though with four engines as well as the longest fuselage of any aircraft to accommodate more passengers.
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With about 1,100 orders today, the Airbus A330’s best year was 2007, when it won 186 orders. That was the same year Boeing announced its first delay on the 787. Demand has crept up in recent years, with 62 orders for the jet in 2010.
Boeing concedes that its delayed 787 has helped its rival.
“The A330 had the best year ever, because we were late and airlines needed a gap-filler airplane,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Jim Albaugh said on February 2, speaking at a ceremony where Boeing rolled out the 1,000th 767 it has built. The 767, which started operations in 1982, is the second wide-body airliner in history to reach the 1,000 mark, after the Boeing 747 jumbo.
Shipments include aircraft outfitted as refueling tankers to armed forces in Japan and Italy. Airbus also offers the A330 in a configuration as a refuelling tanker, and the two companies are competing to upgrade the US Air Force fleet.
Dreamliner woes
The Dreamliner is more than three years behind schedule after Boeing struggled with parts shortages, manufacturing defects, incomplete work by suppliers and redesigns. The Chicago-based manufacturer, which had to concede the industry lead to Airbus in 2003 and hasn’t regained it since, aims to put the Dreamliner into service by the third quarter of this year, rather than May, 2008, as planned. Shares of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co, the parent company of Airbus, rose 42 per cent over the past 12 months. Boeing stock gained 15 per cent in the period.
Dreamliner delays have forced the company to pay penalties to airlines that were counting on the plane to offer new routes. Boeing has won 847 orders for the jet in total, with All Nippon Airways Co slated to fly the first one. “This is the biggest embarrassment for Boeing,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of Virginia-based aviation consultant The Teal Group. “The 787 penalty payments are going directly to Airbus for A330s.”
Optimising capacity
Part of the A330’s appeal stems from its range and reliability that has made it an aircraft of choice for airlines connecting longer-distance routes between Europe and the US that don’t require longer-haul aircraft such as upcoming Airbus A350 aircraft or the Dreamliner, Airbus’s Leahy said.
“It’s a very flexible plane for airlines that can be used in various configurations that can bring value to all sorts of airline business models,’ said Henri Courpron, chief executive officer of International Lease Finance Corp, which has 89 of the planes in its portfolio. “The A330-200 has phenomenal range that allows airlines to open new routes and go places not reachable before with twin-engine planes of that size.”
The A330 is also popular because it is readily available. The 787, apart from being delayed, is sold out for years, while the A350 wide-body aircraft is still being assembled and won’t fly before the latter part of 2013.