Airbus Industries

[Aviador]

China Eastern makes Airbus order

China Eastern is one of China's top three carriers

State-controlled China Eastern Airlines has ordered 20 Airbus A320 aircraft despite having announced drastic cost-cutting plans earlier in the year.

The new aircraft ordered have a list price of $1.45bn (£884m) and are to be delivered between 2011 and 2013.

Earlier this year the airline postponed or cancelled half of the 29 plane deliveries it had expected in 2009.

Its shares have been suspended since 8 June as it finalises a tie-up with its local rival Shanghai Airlines.

The merger is supposed to reduce their reliance on state aid.

China Eastern chairman Liu Shaoyong has said that details of the merger plan will be released in the next few weeks.

China Eastern has received 8bn yuan ($1.2bn; £714m) in government bail-outs in the current downturn.

But the airline said it had ordered that aeroplanes on the assumption that it would "have steady and organic growth over the next few years... when the economy recovers".

There were suggestions at the Paris Air Show that the planes were an allocation from a previous order by the Chinese government procurement agency CASGC and not a new order.

Nonetheless, Airbus has secured a number of deals at the show, with Hungary's budget carrier Wizz Air signing a memorandum of understanding on Thursday for 50 A320 aeroplanes with a list price of $3.8bn.

Air Asia has ordered 10 A350 jets, Qatar Airways has signed up for 24 A320s and there have also been orders from Vietnam Airlines and Cebu Pacific.

Source

 

[Aviador]

Airbus has received a massive boost today from Emirates. The airline airlines has ordered 32 Airbus A380 aircraft, Airbus claim it is "the world's most expensive order of commercial aircraft."

Also today Brazil’s TAM Airlines announced an order for 20 new Airbus A320 Family and five A350-900 aircraft, bringing the Brazilian airline’s total Airbus orders to 176 aircraft.

 

[Aviador]

Malaysia Airlines have indicated that it may cancel its order of six A380 super-jumbos if Airbus continues to postpone delivery.

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Airbus release electrical fault warning

Airbus is to issue a worldwide safety warning about electrical problems on its A319, A320 and A321 aircraft, the BBC reports. The plane maker is investigating a fault that temporarily affected primary cockpit displays and computer controls on a BMI flight from Khartoum to Beirut in August. The standby instruments on the A321 plane did operate normally.

The pilots eventually regained control of the aircraft - but by that time it was 20 miles off its course. They reported that without warning the aircraft began to shudder, banking steeply on its own - failing to respond to pilot commands over a period of several minutes. The twin-engined jet with 49 people aboard was cruising at 36,000ft. The crew were bombarded by a stream of warning messages before cockpit screens turned grey and then went blank. The aircraft's left wing suddenly dropped without any input from the crew.

Airbus said in a statement that it is helping both the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the BEA in France with the inquiry. But investigators have already urged Airbus to alert all operators of its A319, A320 and A321 planes about the potential hazards stemming from such electrical faults.

Source[/textarea]

 

[Aviador]

It has been reported on various news sources that Rolls-Royce will temporarily replace whole A380 engines suffering oil leaks which caused the failure of a A380 engine belonging to Qantas.

 

[Rob]

They appear to have reached a conclusion on the cause of the RR Trent failure on the Quantus A380. Hopefully they can rush through a plan of action to get the Trents all changed/modified and get them back in action with a clean bill of health as soon as possible, then perhaps they can start to put this mini commercial disaster behind them.

Qantas A380 engine failure was caused by oil fire, investigators find

An oil leak was the most likely cause of the mid-air disintegration of a Qantas superjumbo engine last month, investigators have confirmed. They said a potentially dangerous manufacturing defect may still exist in Rolls-Royce engines used by 20 of the A380s...The bureau confirmed earlier suggestions that oil leaking from tubes in a super-hot part of the engine started a fire that eventually caused a turbine disc to fly apart and send shrapnel slicing through a wing of the plane. The ATSB said it had found a suspected manufacturing flaw in oil tubes in part of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines and recommended new safety checks for A380s using those engines.

Earlier warnings blamed an oil leak for a fire and subsequent chain of failures that sent heavy parts flying off the engine shortly after it took off from Singapore. The engine blowout showered debris across Indonesia's Batam island.

The Australian agency, which is leading the international investigation into the Qantas engine breakup, added some specifics, saying a section of an oil tube that connects the high-pressure and intermediate-pressure bearing structures of the engine was the danger area. The problem could lead to "fatigue cracking, oil leakage and potential engine failure from an oil fire," the agency said. "We are not yet at a stage where we can definitively say that the potential fatigue problem with the oil pipe that has been detected is the cause of what happened over Batam island," ATSB's chief commissioner Martin Dolan told reporters. "But we think it is significant enough as a safety issue in any event that it needed to be identified and safely dealt with."

The agency's report also showed the engine blowout led to a series of electrical and computer system failures that forced the pilots to land the plane in difficult conditions. The plane's autopilot function disconnected about 1,000 feet from the runway, leaving the pilots little choice but to fly the aircraft manually for the rest of the approach.
"The aircraft would not have arrived safely in Singapore without the focus and effective action of the flight crew," Dolan said.

The ATSB said Rolls-Royce, the affected airlines and other safety regulators were responding to the findings with action to ensure the A380s involved were safe. Planes using Trent 900 engines underwent extensive checks and modifications in compliance with a directive on 11 November from the European Aviation Safety Agency that warned of dangerous oil leaks following the Qantas incident. The agency said it had no immediate plans to change that directive following the ATSB's recommendations. "We believe the safety of the engines is ensured by our previous airworthiness directive, namely the engine inspections," a spokesman, Dominique Fouda, said. "But if there are additional findings in the next several days, we reserve the right to change that directive."

Qantas, which grounded its six A380s for three weeks after the blowout, said it had completed the new checks on one of the two A380s it has returned to service, and had found no problem. Qantas replaced 16 Trent 900s before putting just two of its A380s back into the skies five days ago. The others are still undergoing tests. Meanwhile, Qantas said it had filed a statement of claim in an Australian court that will allow it to pursue possible legal action against Rolls-Royce if it is not satisfied with a compensation offer from the engine manufacturer.

Singapore Airlines has 11 superjumbos that use Trent 900 engines, and Lufthansa has three. Singapore Airlines said it was conducting new checks of its engines. The airline "is complying with the recommendations and carrying out the new inspections, alongside other inspections recommended by Rolls-Royce and included in the directives from the European Aviation Safety Agency," it said in a statement.

c/o guardian.co.uk, date 3 Dec 2010

 

[Aviador]

It must be a huge setback for Rolls Royce. I hope they can resolve the problem as soon as possible for the sake of all the jobs involved in making the engines.

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Easyjet orders more aircraft from Airbus

The company is to convert options on 15 A320s into firm orders with "substantial confidential price concessions" secured with Airbus and the engine provider, CFM.

Options have also been agreed on a further 33 A320s, and easyJet has converted a contract for 20 A319s due for delivery from next January into the larger A320, increasing the number of seats by 480.

Read more here[/textarea]

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Airbus ahead of Boeing for 2010 plane orders

A late rush of orders helped European aircraft-maker Airbus to record higher sales than US rival Boeing in 2010. Airbus received 644 new orders last year, worth $84bn at full list price - of which 200 were placed in December. That was enough to push Boeing into second place with 625 plane orders.

After allowing for cancellations of existing orders, Airbus - with 574 net new orders and a 52% market share - still beat Boeing, which received 530 net orders. Both firms saw their number of orders approximately double from 2009, as airlines showed increasing confidence that the recession was behind them.

Airbus also maintained its eight-year lead over Boeing in the number of deliveries of finished planes. The firm reported 510 deliveries for the year, up 12% from 2009, and is targeting 520-530 more deliveries this year. That compares with 462 for Boeing, which was down 4% on 2009.

Airbus sales head John Leahy said: ‘Aviation is growing again because of Asia, low-cost carriers and emerging markets. The figures show the economy is improving. The only negative on the horizon is the fuel price.’

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[User0001]

if you had to choose either the A380 or the dream-liner 787, which one would you pick and why?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's difficult to compare because the two aren't really designed for the same market.

The 380 is aimed at long or longish haul between centres that provide a high density of passengers on key routes and of course carries many more passengers than the 787 will hold.

The 787 is really the replacement for the 767 (that's not to say that 767s won't be around for many years yet) and will be used in a far greater variety of work than the 380, not least because it will be able to access airports that the 380 can't because of its size.

For example, you won't see a 380 at airports like LBA or BRS but you will see 787s when they begin to enter service with airlines in significant numbers.

The competitor to the 787 is really the A350.

 

[User0001]

plus the 787 is a lot faster than the A380 and the 787 can also go a lot further than the A380

 

[Aviador]

As TheLocalYokel has pointed out, you should really be comparing the 787 with the A350, not the A380.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

plus the 787 is a lot faster than the A380 and the 787 can also go a lot further than the A380

I thought the 380 was designed to cruise at around Mach 0.85, about the same as the 787.

Maximum distances appear to be around 9,000 miles for both.

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi

Thomas Cook has signed a deal with Airbus to supply 12 new Airbus A321 and plans to Lease a number of Airbus A320's to replace its ageing fleet short haul Boeing 757-200 and Airbus A320's

Thomas Cook Group signs contract for 12 A321s with Sharklets

Thomas Cook Group has signed a firm order for 12 Airbus A321s, as a first step of its single aisle fleet harmonization and renewal plan which is based on the A320 Family. The aircraft will be fitted with the latest fuel saving wing-tip devices, known as Sharklets.

The new aircraft are scheduled to be delivered from 2014, together with options to purchase further A320 family aircraft from 2015.

In addition to the firm order, Thomas Cook Group plans to lease A320 Family aircraft from operating lessors.

Image: Airbus.

 

[User0001]

no the 787 can go alot further, airlines can see the more potential with the 787 as it is a lot easier to accommodate at the airports than the A380. stands which are used at current airports will be able to accommodate the 787 unlike the A380 which has to have it own stands built. I back the 787 all the way it going to be the most fuel efficient way to travel by aircraft.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

no the 787 can go alot further, airlines can see the more potential with the 787 as it is a lot easier to accommodate at the airports than the A380.

The 787 will certainly be able to be accommodated at many airports that will be too small in infrastructure to cope with the 380. I gave LBA and BRS as examples of this in my earlier post.

As for speed and range, I've just checked the Boeing and Airbus websites.

Boeing says the 787/800 will cruise at Mach 0.85 and will have a maximum range of between 7,650 and 8,200 nautical miles. The 787/900 will also cruise at Mach 0.85 and will have a maximum range of between 8,000 and and 8,500 nautical miles.

Airbus says the 380/800 has a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.89 though it seems the crusing speed is normally around Mach 0.85. The maximum range is given as 8,300 nautical miles.

So in speed and range the two appear to be fairly evenly matched.

 

[User0001]

It depends the 787 is being predicted to be able to travel to perth from london heathrow none stop

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It depends the 787 is being predicted to be able to travel to perth from London heathrow none stop

That may be so because London to Perth is around 7,800 nautical miles which is within the theoretical range of both the 787 and the 380.

The 787 will be a more flexible machine for many airlines because it should be able to be used successfully in all sorts of roles whereas the 380 is really best suited to long haul on high density routes.

The other thing the 787 will do of course is give airports with limited runway capability access to longer non-stop routes because of its design and weight - again LBA and BRS spring particularly to mind as airports that might benefit from this.

Boeing says the 787 could reach Cape Town or Western USA without load penalty from Bristol's meagre 2011 metre runway and I'm sure the same would apply to LBA. Whether any airlines would want to fly regularly on such routes from these airports is open to question but the principle demonstrates that other perhaps more viable long haul routes might well be considered.

TOM has said it will use the 787 from Bristol to replace the 767 that currently flies in summer to Sanford, Florida (non stop) and to Cancun, Mexico with a fuel stop at MAN outbound. The 787 would go non-stop.

 

[Aviador]

Personally I have more faith in Airbus being able to achieve the better product, for cost reliability and performance. I think the Airbus product is simply better and the A350 will offer more variants and choice to the customer than the Boeing 787.