Aer Lingus interested in A350

[apaddyinuk]

Quoted from the BA intranet site BA NEWS

"Airbus marketing chief John Leahy also spoke to reporters in Toulouse on Tuesday about plans for the A350, which would be based on the existing Airbus A330 but with new engines, a new wing and greater use of lightweight composites.

"We are looking at the A350 (after) airlines asked if we could build an A330 that flies longer," Leahy said.

"Will we launch the 350? I hope we do. A lot of airlines are hoping we do... I hope we have something more to say by the end of the year."

Irish carrier Aer Lingus is already in talks with Airbus about the purchase of 12 A350s, German newspaper Handelsblatt said, quoting company sources."

I just found it interesting considering the turmoil the airline is undergoing at the moment!!!

[Astra driver]

Apparently one of the requirements Aer Lingus made was that the new engines must be able to run on Guiness.......

[Lee-a-Roady Moor]

Did you mean Guinness....... :ok:

[Kalium Chloride]

Aer Lingus is spending so much time on its longhaul fleet decision that the planemakers can come up with a whole new aircraft before they get around to it.

[akerosid]

Well, in the best tradition of "I felt sad about having no shoes until I met the man with no feet", spare a thought for poor Air India, which has been trying to buy new widebodies since the early 1990s and has been consistently thwarted by a twelve stage civil service/government approval process, involving all sorts of juicy bureaucratic hurdles!

Anyway, as far as EI is concerned, I'm really not convinced that the A350 is the ideal aircraft for them. Fundamentally, it's a reactive aircraft, keeping up with (and probably trying to stymie) Boeing's new type, the 7E7. I've no doubt that - if it gets into production, the A350 will be a very competent aircraft, but it occurs to me that the 7E7 is very considerably better - longer range, a cabin which, although designed for eight abreast, can be operated at nine abreast. It's also interesting that although Aer Lingus was originally looking at the A330-200 -v- 7E7, it now seems to have moved away from the 332 towards the A350, which would suggest that if Airbus doesn't press ahead with the A350 and Boeing brings the 7E7-9 forward, Boeing may well be able to win this one.

[MarkD]

akerosid

since nobody outside of the Airbus design department knows exactly what they are cooking up for A350, why do you assume 7E7 will be superior, especially when many of the advantages quoted for 7E7 like bleedless engines can be just as easily adopted for the Airbus aircraft?

I seem to remember 767 was a "reaction" to A300 and that wasn't a bad aircraft for its time.