China signed a new 10-year accord on Wednesday allowing Airbus to assemble A320s on its soil until 2025 and unblocked orders for larger jets worth more than USD$6 billion, restoring ties after a row with Europe over aircraft emissions. Watched by visiting President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart Francois Hollande, Chinese officials in Paris also signed deals to co-produce 1,000 EC-175 helicopters over 20 years with Airbus's helicopter division and to co-operate on turbo-prop engines with France's Safran. The A330 orders that got the go-ahead on Wednesday had been suspended during a trade row triggered by China's opposition to a European Union law forcing airlines to join an emissions mechanism that China feared could harm its carriers. Airbus said China had agreed to buy a total of 70 aircraft including 43 A320-family planes and had gone ahead with previously frozen orders for 27 Airbus A330s - deals worth a combined USD$10.2 billion at list prices. But it failed to make headway in efforts to expand sales of its most popular wide-body aircraft by offering a new version of its A330, specially tailored for China's domestic market. Airbus is prepared to open a second industrial plant for this project. Airbus opened its first non-European aircraft assembly plant in the port city of Tianjin in 2009 and has been negotiating for months to extend the local production venture beyond 2016. The factory and land have capacity to increase to 8 aircraft a month and could play a major role as Airbus, and rival Boeing, increase production to keep up with demand. China is the world's fastest-growing aviation market despite a slowdown in its economy, with a surge in outbound travellers fuelling the expansion. But deals announced during the French phase of Xi's first presidential visit to Europe fell short of expectations that China would back the new regional model of the Airbus A330 and sign a total of 150 orders worth up to USD$20 billion. "The extension of the Tianjin agreement secures production of 1,000 A320 aircraft over 10 years and these will be the subject of future orders," Bregier said. He reiterated there was a potential market for 200 of the new regional types of A330 offered for China's domestic market. Industry sources say Airbus has been locked in a battle with Boeing for that slice of the busy domestic market. Bregier said Airbus hoped to make progress within a year on discussions over a possible cabin completion centre for the A330 which is expected to be built in Tianjin, alongside the existing A320 assembly plant. (Reuters)
Avianca, an all-Airbus operator, will equip 21 of its A320 Family aircraft with the Airbus Runway Overrun Prevention System (ROPS). This on-board cockpit technology increases pilots’ situational awareness during landing, reduces exposure to runway excursion risk, and, if necessary, provides active protection. Avianca, which merged with TACA in 2010, was rebranded as Avianca last year. The Colombia-based airline group is also made up of Tampa Cargo and Aerogal. Runway excursions are the number one cause of commercial aviation accidents in the world. The patented Airbus ROPS system computes minimum realistic in-flight landing and on-ground stopping distances and compares them to available landing distances in real time. The system combines data on weather, runway condition and topography, and aircraft weight and configuration. Depending on the resulting analysis, ROPS may prompt immediate callouts and alerts for pilots, assisting the crew in the go-around decision-making process and/or the timely application of stopping means on touchdown. In November, Airbus achieved Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification of ROPS for the Airbus A320 Family. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified ROPS on the A320ceo (current engine option) Family in August. American Airlines became the first ROPS customer for the Americas when it has elected to equip all of its A320 Family fleet with Airbus’ ROPS.
Airbus dropped behind Boeing in the race for orders in the first quarter after a pair of wide-body order cancellations, company data showed on Friday. Airbus said it had won new 40 orders in March, led by a diplomatic deal that saw China unblock 27 orders for A330s during a state visit to Europe by President Xi Jinping. However, it suffered two order cancellations, including 12 A350-800s from a company linked to struggling Italian airline Alitalia and five A330s from Philippine Airlines. Airbus ended the quarter with 158 new orders or 103 net orders after adjusting for cancellations. Boeing said on Thursday it had won 275 gross orders or 234 net orders in the first quarter. Cancellations for both plane makers ran at about the same level during the quarter. Boeing leapfrogged its arch-rival in gross orders after winning an order for 61 narrow-body jets from Air Canada, marking a shift of suppliers by the Montreal-based airline. The order, first announced in December, was finalised this week. Airbus said the cancelled A350-800 order came from Aircraft Purchase Fleet, a Dublin-based leasing firm originally set up to provide capacity for Alitalia. While the cancellation will dent Airbus's order book, it reflects a deliberate effort by the company to wean customers off the least-sold version of its newest aircraft as it focuses on the larger A350-900. That may help clear the way for a possible decision by Airbus later this year to give a new lease of life to an existing model by putting new fuel-saving engines on the A330. People familiar with the project say the revamp would be incompatible with putting much investment in the A350-800, which is a similar size but has been relatively unpopular because it is a scaled-down version of the A350-900. Such shrunk aircraft tend to be less efficient because they inherit some unnecessary structure and weight from the larger base model. Orders for the USD$261 million A350-800 peaked at more than 180 aircraft in 2008 but have dwindled to 34 following the latest cancellation as attention focused on two larger A350 models. Aerospace analysts say the future of the smallest variant of A350 now hinges on its remaining five customers including Russia's Aeroflot, South Korea's Asiana Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, who may demand concessions in return for changing their fleet plans. US carrier Delta Air Lines officially launched a competition on Thursday to renew the top end of its fleet with new jets and its decision could shed further light on whether Airbus goes ahead with the revamped A330neo. In terms of deliveries, Boeing remained on top in the first quarter with 161 commercial aircraft deliveries compared with 141 for Airbus. China's decision to unblock 27 A330 orders reflected a reduction of tensions between China and the European Union over EU policies on aviation emissions, but fell short of forecasts of a major new plane order pending final resolution of the row. On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to exempt non-EU international flights from paying for their carbon emissions following intense pressure from national governments not to extend current rules beyond domestic air travel. (Reuters)
Lufthansa said on Monday it had ordered engines worth more than EUR€1 billion (USD$1.4 billion) at list prices from CFM International. The LEAP-1A engines will be used on 40 new Airbus A320neo aircraft, part of a total order for 100 new aircraft of that model, Lufthansa said in a statement. It had already announced that it had picked PW1199G engines made by Pratt & Whitney for the remaining 60 planes of the order. (Reuters)
Executives said on Monday the first A350, Airbus's rival to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, was still on track to be delivered to launch customer Qatar Airways at the end of this year, with certification in the autumn. While it is offering custom options, such as a choice of seats and LED lighting, Airbus is hoping its new customisation centre in Hamburg plus a catalogue of specific options will reduce potential delays. Suppliers are also certified ahead of being included in the catalogue, another measure to prevent delays. "It's enabling us to keep an eye on the industrial ramp up," Chris Emerson, senior vice-president of marketing, told Reuters news agency. "We don't want a repeat of the issue where aircraft aren't being able to be delivered because we're waiting for cabin elements," he said. Emerson said the A350 was six months away from entry into service, and was already in the final assembly line stage. Plus the cabin definition was locked in place and suppliers were now delivering equipment, he said. "With the A380 we weren't in that situation - we had a delay for the customisation and designing of the first cabin," he said. At present, it takes customers around 20 months to design their cabin interiors for the A350. Emerson said the aim was to get this down to just under a year once production is in full-swing. That compares with a current time frame of 18 months for the larger A380. Responding to queries as to whether there was enough choice for airlines, Didier Nasarre, head of the A350 programme, said the catalogue was continually evolving and had already doubled in size in the last year. Airbus has won orders for 812 of the jets, which can seat between 276 and 369 passengers, up to the end of March. The new aircraft is 6 inches wider than the Boeing 787 and new baggage bins mean that even if every single passenger carried on a suitcase there would be enough space for all, Airbus says. (Reuters)
China’s Tibet Airlines has taken delivery of its 1st A319 equipped with Sharklets as well as Qingdao Airlines has taken delivery of its 1st ever A320 equipped with Sharklets.
Airbus has awarded MAAS Aviation the contract for the Paint Shop operation for the A320 Family Assembly Line in Mobile, Alabama. MAAS will be responsible for painting aircraft prior to their delivery to Airbus’ customers. MAAS’ paint hangar will be located on the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley within the Airbus Assembly Line campus. Construction of the $13 million facility is scheduled to begin second quarter 2014 and will be complete by mid-2015. Jesco, Inc. will lead the construction of the paint hangar. The new facility in Mobile is expected to employ 34 people. MAAS also has options for expansion as Airbus’ production increases over the years.
AirAsia has signed an agreement to implement the Airbus Managed Inventory (AMI) service for its A320 and A330 fleets at bases in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. The AMI service, which underlines Airbus’ strategy in offering customized services based on latest industry standards, ensures the automatic and continuous replenishment of high-usage and non-repairable parts at the customer’s facilities.
