EZY A320,s

[schoolkid]

In the June 04 issue of "Airliner world" magazine ,in their March airbus deliverys page it shows an A320 going to easyjet.

Is this true as i beleived it was only 319s they had ordered so far, or is it just a misprint

[jettesen]

probably some journo thought as they had double overwing exits it was a A320!

[Toulouse]

Hi there! Now I'm really confused. Can you clear it up for me Jettesen. I was out at Toulouse airport this morning and saw three aircraft taking off. First was an Air France A319 and it had only one over wing emergency exit (and A319 was clearly written on the fuselage). Next aircraft was an Easy Jet 319/320??? It had two over wing emergency exits so I thought about this post I'd seen yesterday and thought so they must have 320's, yet it did look shorter than the Aer Lingus A320 lining up for take off after the Easy Jet departure??? Even checked the esayjet.com web page and saw that the photos of their 319's have two overwing exits while Air France only appear to have one???????
:ok: Thanks for any clarifications

[eal401]

Hmm, the BA A319 I went on a few weeks ago had 1 overwing exit if I recall correctly.

[simfly]

From what I believe (doesn't mean much though!!!!) Easy's aircraft should all be 319's. They have 2 overwing exits because of the amount of pax they can accommodate. Remember, with no galley etc, there's an extra row (or more) and so on.. It's a safety thing for evacuating X amount of pax, if you catch my drift.......:ugh: (please bash me if incorrect..)

[Toulouse]

Yeah simfly I had thought more or less the same, but then I wasn't sure if an airline could request additional exits on an aircraft?

[NWSRG]

Easy 319s do have additional exits to meet evacuation standards.

But I think their deal with Airbus also allowed for other 320 family models if required. So although only 319s so far, who knows?

Wasn't it Jet Blue who tried to persuade Airbus to do a 320.5? Not as long as a 321, but longer than a 320!

[Toulouse]

fascinating! Thanks alot for all the replies!:ok:

[Caracul]

Just as a query, what are the possibilities of Easyjet getting 320's? I know that the option is there in case they want them, but are they seriously looking at getting them, or is it just a case of "well we might....in the future" and are just leaving their options open?

[In trim]

All easyJet Airbus aircraft are A319's. There are NO A320's in the fleet or on order.

The eJ A319's are re-configured in the galley / toilet areas, and this combined with the seat pitch means 156 seats (but at a more comfortable seat pitch than the 737's).

With more than 150 seats the standard A319 fuselage would not meet evacualtion standards, hence the A320-style double overwing exits. This means the aircraft far exceeds the evacuation standards required as in effect they've fitted 2 additional exits for the sake of 6 seats!

As far as future orders are concerned, eJ have the option to 'upgrade' some of their future orders / options to A320 or 321 in the future. No sign of this happening yet though.

Adding a larger type into the fleet would cause a number of complexities in terms of the basing and rotation of aircraft, upgrade or downgrade of aircraft size due to disruption, etc. so would be difficult to manage in a complex flying programme such as eJ. (Wheras a swap between a 737 and 319 can easily be done with minimal, if any, passenger load impact.)

I suspect that the A320 is unlikely, but possibly the A321 in the future for some of the larger and more slot-constrained operations. (LGW?)

[EGHI_or_bust]

I think that I read that the EZ A319's though having 156 seat capacity do not use it as it would necessitate an extra member of cabin staff, whereas at 150 they can use the standard 3. This would make sense for a lo-cost carrier as in 1 extra cabin staff for just 6 pax seems somewhat expensive.

[WHBM]

EasyJet are actually the first operator to put as many as 156 seats into the A319. Previously only 142 was done (Skyservice Canada and Germanwings). So it's not just another 6 seats but 14 seats beyond the previous limit, presumably determined by evacuation tests, which thus requires the double overwing exits.

As the double doors and surrounding structure are on the A320 anyway, presumably it's just a case of combining standard parts. Anyone got a feel for how much it adds to costs ? The idea probably came as much from Airbus as from Easy during the sales process.