Airline News
Airbus and Boeing talk about A380, B757
June 22nd 2015
Airbus has reiterated the need for the A380 to support the projected 4.6%-a-year air traffic growth over the next 20 years Read More » and argues that only very large aircraft (VLA) can deliver the numbers of people expected to travel between the world’s mega-city hubs, singling out London’s Heathrow and Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle as examples.
Asked whether that meant it was a question of when, not if, Airbus would launch a re-engined, more efficient A380neo, Airbus chief operating officer customers, John Leahy, replied, “that’s a good way of putting it,” but stressed no decision has been made yet.
“I would say we are talking to at least half a dozen people now [about the A380neo], but I don’t think we will have a dozen [airline] customers at the launch phase if we have a launch phase,” Leahy said. He added Airbus was in discussions with some airlines “about a little stretch” of the airframe if a neo was launched, enough to accommodate 40 to 60 additional seats.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but perhaps not as many as we would have liked,” Emirates Airline president, Sir Tim Clark, told Bloomberg. Clark had earlier said he would buy 100 additional A380s if Airbus were to develop a neo version.
At a media briefing at the Paris Air Show, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive, Ray Conner, said the manufacturer was studying the market for a B757 replacement that would fit between the largest B737 MAX variant and the B787-8 after a number of operators had complained about a gap in terms of a direct replacement for the B757. “We are talking to airlines about this and they want an airplane that is bigger and flies further than the 757. There is no such airplane at the moment—the [Airbus] A321LR does not address that need, Conner added.
