News
Brégier: Airbus to surpass Boeing output by 2020
October 21st 2016
Fabrice Brégier, CEO of Airbus’ commercial aircraft unit, said the European plane maker will overtake Boeing in aircraft deliveries by 2020.
“In 2020, we will again be delivering more aircraft than Boeing. We took 19 years to build the first 1000 aircraft. The last 1000 we have made within 19 months”, he said. Read More »
On the A350, Brégier said 26 had been delivered so far this year and Airbus maintains its full-year delivery target of 50 aircraft.
The Toulouse-based manufacturer hopes the first test flight of the stretched A350-1000 will take off in November.
Meanwhile, Airbus will take one of its five A350 test aircraft on an eleven-day tour of China from October 29 through November 8, with scheduled visits in Haikou, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, as well as flight displays at the upcoming Zhuhai Airshow.
Airbus has had lacklustre A350 sales on the Mainland. Only Air China and China Eastern Airlines have officially ordered the type, although several HNA Group carriers have proclaimed an interest. Sichuan Airlines last month signed for four A350s, although these will be sourced from lessors.
In other OEM updates, Airbus’ turboprop associate, ATR, this week issued a new market forecast whereby it predicts demand for 750 new propeller aircraft across the Asia-Pacific region through to 2036, fuelled by about 600 new routes to be created in the region (excluding China and India).
"The regional market is often considered as a lower-end niche. Yet, the economic development that our connections stimulate can also generate much larger opportunities. Especially since ATR aircraft are very efficient in a variety of airline business models in the region, including low-cost, full service, point-to-point and access to remote communities," John Moore, ATR head of sales, told Orient Aviation at a media briefing in the Philippines on the occasion of the entry into service of the very first ATR 72-600 High Capacity on October 15 with Cebu Pacific Air. The high-capacity variant increases the previous seat count by six extra seats to 78.
Separately, Brazilian regional aircraft OEM, Embraer, has announced nine firm orders from four customers during the third quarter. All but one were placed by Asia-Pacific customers, including five E190-E2s for Indonesian airline Kalstar Aviation, and five options, two E190s for Colorful Guizhou Airlines, and three options, as well as an E175 for United Airlines and an E190 for Japan Airlines (JAL) offshoot, J-Air.
Last but not least, new kid on the block, Japanese OEM Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp, this week said it had at last begun flight testing its MRJ90 aircraft in Moses Lake, Washington. The first test flight lasted 3 hours and 18 minutes.
