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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 11/98

AIRBUS AND BOEING BATTLE FOR POLE POSITION

Airbus is constructing a 100-seater. With this announcement, which experts had expected for the Farnborough Air Show, the European Consortium finally put an end to a two year long indecisiveness. They made a firm commitment to build a regional airliner.

Initially the AI-Engineers were sceptical about the first draft of a further shortened A319. However, it has now been decided to come up with an aircraft to meet the competition head-on.

This is seen to be a good decision since Boeing's 717 does not seem to be progressing as well as was hoped, and the decision makers in Toulouse see their chance to put the Seattle-Twin with its DC-9 image out of the market.

The A318 will carry 107 passengers (in two classes), which is 16 per cent less than the smallest member of the existing A319 Airbus-Standard-Fuselage family. In order to adapt the fuselage for this reduced capacity, the aircraft constructors from Toulouse will remove 1.5 frames in front and 3 behind the wings. The aircraft will be shortened by 2.40 meters to a length of 31.40 meters.

The maximum take-off weight will be 59 tons for a basic model and 61.5 tons for an increased range High-Gross-Weight Version. The range of both aircraft is planned to be 1,500 and 2,000 NM (2,778 and 3,704 km).

The Basic-A318 would be able to fly from London to Helsinki, Tunis and Casablanca and the HGW-Model to Las Palmas, Rhodes, Ankara and Moscow.

The new Airbus will be fitted with two Pratt & Whitney PW6000-Turbofans. The preliminary development of the unit, which will have to put out between 16,000 to 23,000 lbs, (71 to 102 kN) is now complete. The first trial of the successor to the JT8D engine is planned for next July.

The PW6000 will not remain the only engine option for the A318. "It is always favourable to offer more than one option. This is why we are currently also talking to other manufacturers. However, at the moment Pratt & Whitney is making the best offer", explains Airbus Senior Vice President Commercial John Leahy.

Other competitors see this offer as unprofitable. "Pratt & Whitney were only interested in getting the PW6000 installed into an aircraft which has a good image, even if it is passed on at a (dumping) price", was one of the comments.

Maybe the losers in this first round, especially if they are new to this market, should consider whether this kind of procedure is advantageous for their own product in the long run. It seems to make more sense to have a foot in the door, i.e. a share in the market, than staying in a balance securing position.

Whatever happens, the current and future engine options will, due to their consumption and maintenance data, contribute tremendously towards the efficiency of the A318. The costs for trips will be four per cent cheaper, when compared with the A319. According to calculations by Airbus, seat mile costs will be 12 per cent more expensive in the A318 as a result of the lower seating capacity.

When compared with the competition from Seattle the European Consortium definitely sees its new model in the lead. AI advertises advantageous trip and seating mile costs of six and three per cent, when the newcomer is compared with the 737-600. The 717 will be outperformed by the A318 with a cost structure that is by ten per cent better, says Airbus.

The price of the new "Benjamin" is $35.7 million. Admittedly this is $2.7 million more expensive than the 717 however, the new model has all the advantages of the Airbus Standard Fuselage Family, i.e. the same model entitlement, fly-by-wire, electronic wind shear protection and electronic flight envelope protection. What the valued customer gets is, after all, a modern aircraft and not a poor copy of a concept, which is long outdated, says Airbus.

Airbus estimates that there is a market potential for the 70 to 100-seater airliners of 2,124 units over the next 20 years. About 1,000 of these will be 100-seaters. The aircraft constructors from Toulouse intend to get a big slice of this cake.

The maiden flight of the A318, whose development will amount to approx. $300 million, is planned for the end of the year 2001 and the plane will go into service by the middle of 2002.

Airbus estimates the need for aircraft with more than 400 seats at 1,300 units up to 2018. However, the market does so far not reflect this level of optimism. The world's Mega-Carriers are not euphoric about the 500 to 1000-seater Mega-Airliner A3XX, which is currently being designed. The Asia crisis is partly to blame for this as the A3XX is intended to transport passengers to and from the Asian conurbation.

Airbus will decide towards the end of next year, whether the potential business will justify investments of up to $10 billion, which will be needed for the development and construction of the new giant aircraft. This is why the A3XX will not be put on the market before 2004.

Boeing does not have similar worries, although the Seattle based company would gladly change places with Airbus. During the two years since the Farnborough Air Show, Airbus received orders for 815 aircraft. This is as many as were ordered during the first 16 years since the four-nation consortium came into existence.

It has to be noted that Boeing received record orders last year. However, the position of the Goliath of aircraft construction has become unstable this year. Amalgamation with McDonnell-Douglas and its unforeseen consequences and the chaos resulting from over-ambitious production targets are two of the reasons. The way, in which these self-inflicted problems were tackled, tarnished the company's image. In order to save face symbolically, Ron Woodhard, the Commercial-Airplane-President, was dismissed shortly before the Farnborough Air Show.

Alan Mulally is the new Boss of the BCAG. Last year the former Head of Program for the 777 was in charge of the Boeing Aerospace Defence and Information Technology Business.

In order to stress his determination to improve the current situation, Boeing President Harry Stonecipher took Woodhard to task in front of the world's media in Farnborough, "Where we have been too arrogant, too distracted and too self-satisfied we are going to be much more intense and much more focused. We let down our customers by increasing delivery delays. This can neither be tolerated nor accepted. Neither Airbus nor Lockheed were at the root of our problem. We have only ourselves to blame. From now on we will concentrate on what is important and that is to please our customers."

The airlines' Board of Directors will be curious whether this promise will be put into practise. The 717 will need more than powerful words to reach acceptable sales figures. Since the program start three years ago, - then known as McDonnell Douglas MD-95 -, sales have stagnated. Apart from the "Launch-Order" from AirTran, which was then known as ValuJet, (50 units), only the Bavarian Leasing Company Bavaria could up to now be convinced of this model's advantages. At what reduction in price, is the question remaining.

The announcement of the A318 will not make the lives of the 717 sales force any easier. Other manufacturers like Fairchild Aerospace and Bombardier are trying hard to win business. They will all point out the fact that 717 is based on the 30 year old DC-9.

However, while all the others have so far only been able to come up with concepts, Boeing actually has a plane, that flies.

From page 12 of FLUG REVUE 11/98