PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Airbus A350
Thread: Airbus A350
View Single Post
Old 30th Nov 2004, 20:26
  #15 (permalink)  
humble_dor
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: France
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Stealth airplane

7E7 vs A350.

When Airbus launched the A380 several years ago, Boeing responded with Sonic Cruiser. Many people understood that SC was merely a smoke screen to hide Boeing's real intention to build the replacement of 767 and 757. While Airbus' strategy is based on hub-and-spoke air transport structure, Boeing thinks that there is a bigger market for aircraft that will serve point-to-point traffic.

During SC's short life, Boeing repeatedly said that they would build either a high speed airplane or a very efficient one. Now we know exactly which one is chosen by Boeing. They chose to build an efficient and simple airplane dubbed Dreamliner, as replacement of 76s and 75s.

When 7E7-Dreamliner was launched, Airbus prefered not to respond because its management thought that 7E7 was yet another Boeing's bluff. It was said that the A330 was competitive enough against 7E7. Many people thought that Boeing's share holders wouldn't ever let it make any investment in an all new airplane.

Every airplane programme is a risky investment. But, Boeing has learnt, probably from Airbus, that risk can be shared. Airbus shares risk with its suppliers in A380 programme. There is not any reason why Boeing cannot do the same and this is exactly what Boeing does with 7E7.

Airbus' opinion on 7E7 seems to change today. They now offer an airplane called A350 to compete against 7E. But go to Airbus' web site and you won' t find anything about A350. You can find speculations about this airplane in the press, but no clear definition can be found. Some of the descriptions mention an aircraft based on the A330 with much longer range than that of the current A330.

The question is if the A350 will cannibalize A340-300 and A330. If Airbus' share holders give go-ahead to A350 then you can expect that A330 and A340-300 production will stop. One strong reason why A330 and A340-300 will stop if A350 goes ahead is because Airbus just cannot afford keeping several plants for A330/A340-300 and A350 unless the manufacturing techniques are almost identical. The point is that A350 manufacturing cannot be similar to A330/A340 if Airbus wants to make A350 competitive enough against 7E7.

If Airbus' objective is to slow down 7E7 sales by introducing A350 then this move is not worthwhile for the simple and single reason that 7E7 is the replacement for 757 and 767.
Please remember that the cumulative orders of both 767 and 757 exceeds 1900 airplane, meaning that the potential market of the 7E7 is about 2000 units during the next 20 years. The wildest estimate tops 3000 aircraft in the next 20 years.
humble_dor is offline