Airbus A350 XWB news

[tsv]

Since the War Japan has been obsessed about not doing anything to upset the Americans.

Invariably blindly ordering Boeing Equipment while barely giving a thought to alternatives was just one symptom of this hang up.

Today Japan grew up a bit.

[sn26567]

JAL briefly flew A300-600s after its merger with Japan Air System in the early 2000s, but never ordered from Airbus itself.

The CEO of JAL said that the dreamliner problems played no role in the decision to buy the A350 from Airbus: the A350-900 and the A350-1000 were the aircraft best fitting JAL's needs.

Now remains to be seen if ANA will follow suit. By April 2014 ANA will make a decision on the aircraft to replace its ageing B777 fleet from 2020. There are two contenders: the A350 and the B777X. Wait and see...

[sn26567]

Today, first flight for the second Airbus A350 (MSN3 - reg. F-WZGG).



The two A350s are currently flying...

Meanwhile, the first A350 XWB has completed its rejected take-off this weekend as part of the flight test programme.

[Streetstream]

Great news indeed. I'm hoping for a side by side picture soon.

[sn26567]

Airbus is studying the feasibility of a stretched A350

Airbus has launched detailed technical studies into further stretching the A350, centering on how much additional engineering work would be needed for the aircraft’s structure and systems to allow the fuselage to be extended beyond that of the A350-1000.

The current studies are primarily technical. The landing gear for the -1000 is already different from the -900, and has upward weight potential in the tens of tons, so it would not be a hurdle.

If Airbus goes ahead with the project, it would follow Boeing’s plans to stretch the 777, making the proposed 777-9X a 400-seat aircraft.

The A350-1000 is defined by Airbus as a 350-seat aircraft in three classes. It is almost identical in size to Boeing’s 777-300ER, but Airbus claims it can seat nine additional passengers because the aircraft will have only four exit doors on each side rather than five for the -300ER.

Airbus argues that the proposed Boeing 777-9X will burn 15% more fuel than its A350-1000 for about 10% more capacity, and it will not get below the fuel-burn per seat achieved by the -900.

More details from Aviation Week

[sn26567]

Aeroflot to delay A350 XWB deliveries

Russia’s Aeroflot will delay delivery of its 22 Airbus A350 XWBs to between 2018 and 2023. Deliveries were originally scheduled from between 2018 and 2020. The decision was approved at a company shareholders meeting.

There are two possible reasons for the delay. One is that Aeroflot has converted part of its A350-800 order into -900s. The company said it will now get eight -800s and 14 -900s, though earlier the order was split into 18 -800s and four -900s. The second possible reason is the carrier’s order for 16 Boeing 777s, of which deliveries started at the beginning of the year.

Aeroflot fleet includes 22 Airbus A330s, 23 A321s, 51 A320s and 15 A319s; four Boeing 777s, five 767s and one 737; six Ilyushin Il-96s; and 10 Sukhoi Superjet 100s.

More from ATW online

[sn26567]

Airbus has been openly reluctant to actually build the shorter A350-800. But it still holds 79 firm orders for the type (down from double that number), and some customers are hard to convince to upgrade their order.

As mentioned in the post above, Aeroflot opted to convert 10 orders for the -800 into commitments for the larger -900 version, but still wants 8 of the smallest A350 family member.

A number of omther airlines continue to insist on the 250-seat aircraft (in three classes), because they believe they are unable to fill the larger variants. The future of the type could very well rest on the decision of the planned merger of US Airways and American Airlines. With an order for 18 aircraft, US Airways is now by far the largest -800 customer, following by lessor Aircraft Purchase Fleet (12), Yemen Airways (10) and Hawaiian Airlines (6).

But if the “New American” decides that the -800 no longer fits its requirement for the long-haul fleet, Airbus might just drop the programme, although A350 programme chief Didier Evrard said last week that “as long as the airlines show an interest, the aircraft will be built. It is not complicated for us to do it.”

More from Aviation Week

[sn26567]

The Airbus A350 is out on its first long trip to salute Airbus employees at Airbus sites around Europe. After departure from Toulouse they have done a low pass on airports in Nantes, St Nazaire, Filton and Hawarden. The flight is now heading for Bremen, Hamburg and Stade before they fly back to Toulouse.

Follow the flight live on http://www.flightradar24.com/AIB101

Edit: ... and oops! Squawk 7600 - AIB101 (Lost Communications) - Airbus A350-941 - Airbus Industries - F-WZGG

http://www.radarbox24.com/2013-11-28/16/04/AIB101

[RoMax]

For who is interested, you can follow the flight hours of the A350 test program through this link. The other subpages also give information about orders, production list,...
http://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub? ... utput=html

[quixoticguide]

For who is interested, you can follow the flight hours of the A350 test program through this link. The other subpages also give information about orders, production list,...
http://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub? ... utput=html

Emirates A350 in 2019? i thought they received in 2014?

[RoMax]

Emirates A350 in 2019? i thought they received in 2014?

Could be a mistake, I don't know I didn't made that file, but it seems very late indeed. Though I don't think it will be 2014 either as I believe Qatar Airways will be the only airline receiving the A350 in 2014. The initial aircraft all seem to go to Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Finnair and TAM. The rest of the list is empty except for the first A350's for Thai, Cathay and Etihad.

[quixoticguide]

Or will they cancel the A350 order and go for the B777-X?
Personally I don't think this will happen because they need some replacement for the A330 and A340?

[sn26567]

There are several companies (Emirates, Qatar, Etihad & Cathay) that have bought at the same time the A350-1000 and the 777-9X, thus they seem to address different markets.

[RoMax]

Emirates will certainly take up the A350, it is in a slightly different league than the 777X. Before the Dubai Air Show I read they might change some orders for the -900 version to the -1000 version though, but I still believe they'll take both in a certain amount.

As you see with all the current 777X customers, they are all A350 customers as well, of which only LH has no firm orders for the -1000 version. And it is being said of Japan Airlines (which recently ordered 18 -900's and 13 -1000's) that they'll eventually also need the 777-9X if they want to continue expanding while facing serious slot restrictions which is highly expected (mainly at HND). Altough JAL is currently in a "lean and mean" period, so I don't see them ordering the 777X that fast.
ANA is said to favour the 777-9X (according to "airline sources") with a potential follow up order for the 787. ANA still has tens of 767 and 777's (-200(ER) and -300(ER) versions) and while Airbus can offer delivery slots as early as 2019, they are said to be willing to wait until 2020/2021 if they get a good deal on the 777X and a follow up 787 order (which could be for all three versions).

Although the ANA story is little of topic, my point is that when your long haul fleet is diverse enough, you can easilly operate both the 777X and the A350 or even all three (with the 787 included).

Personally I don't think this will happen because they need some replacement for the A330 and A340?

Indeed, altough the trend is going up in size. I remember Emirates saying it would be a bad thing for Emirates to eventually still operate aircraft with a seat capacity of less than 300 seats (exactly the reason they chose for the A350 instead of the 787 family).

[sn26567]

American Airlines has converted an existing for 22 A350-800s into A350-900s. The original order was placed by US Airways and consisted of 18 A350-800s and 4 A350-900s.

As a consequence, the order book for the A350-800 is fast disappearing with only 61 aircraft left on order, from Yemenia, Aeroflot and lessor Aircraft Purchase Fleet. Will Airbus pursue the construction of that model?

[sn26567]

New year, new look! The third flight-test A350 XWB aircraft is unveiled in its new livery, a distinctive “Carbon” signature livery to reflect its primary construction from advanced materials.

This is the first of two A350 flight test aircraft to be equipped with a full passenger cabin interior and will be the first A350 to transport passengers when it undertakes the Early Long Flights (ELF) later in the year.

[RoMax]

only 61 aircraft left on order, from Yemenia, Aeroflot and lessor Aircraft Purchase Fleet.

I believe Asiana, Hawaiian, Libyan (or Afriqiyah?) also still have orders for the -800, though indeed just 61 in total.

[sn26567]

The A350 XWB is presently in Bolivia for high altitude testing at Cochabamba and La Paz, some of world's highest airports.

[RoMax]

Airbus so far logged over 800 flight test hours with the two first aircraft (MSN1 and MSN3), operating about 200 flights. Soon MSN2 will join the fleet, with two more to join afterwards. Airbus confirmed they are on course to deliver the first A359 to Qatar Airways in the fourth quater of this year.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... 0h-394682/

[sn26567]

A350 MSN003 is on its way to Martinique for hot weather testing after the high altitude trials in Bolivia.

Meanwhile, the Airbus A350 wing has passed the ultimate load test - 1.5 times the maximum forces expected in revenue service.

At today's press conference, Airbus hinted it might increase slightly the size of the A350-800 in order to accommodate a few additional seats and make it more attractive to airlines. As a reminder, the sales of the A358 were dwindling as more and more airlines are switching to the larger A359.