TWO planes dominated conversation at the Farnborough air show, but both were conspicuous by their absence. Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighter failed to show up on the first day of an annual aerospace jamboree that alternates between Paris and rural Hampshire; an engine fire in America led to the grounding of the fleet of advanced fighter jets. And Airbus’s A330neo, a proposed update of an older wide-bodied passenger jet, is still on the drawing board.
The fighter jet is one of the biggest defence programmes ever. Complex and pricey, the F-35 is intended to be a one-size-fits-all plane for America’s air force, marines and navy as well as for friendly and rich armies around the world. Yet Airbus's A330neo is likely to be commercially more significant than the fast and glamorous military jet: it could allow Airbus to beat back Boeing, its arch-rival.
The A330neo is a redesigned version of a plane launched 20 years ago. It is meant to fill a gap in Airbus’s line-up of wide-bodied long-haul jets and allow the European firm to compete better with Boeing, which is starting to build a big lead in selling such planes. The A330neo boasts a tried and trusted air frame, but is fitted with new engines, exclusively supplied by Britain’s Rolls-Royce. These make it around 14% more efficient than the current models, according to Airbus.
Airbus has had some success putting new engines on old aircraft. The order book for its updated single-aisle workhorse, the A320neo, is bulging: Airbus already has orders for nearly 2,700 planes—700 more than Boeing has for its equivalent, the 737MAX. Airlines like to buy such re-designed planes because they are a cheap alternative to more technically complex new models.
Airbus is trying to repeat that trick with the A330, a very successful but now ageing airliner. Yet the firm is perceived to have a problem with its bigger planes. On the eve of Farnborough Boeing turned the knife, saying that its European rival was heading towards commanding only a third of the market for wide-bodied jets.
Indeed, Airbus has had its troubles. The four-engine A340, launched in service in 1993, sold poorly: the market moved towards less thirsty and easier to maintain two-engine long-haul jets. The success of the A380 superjumbo is still under question. The double-decker plane has drained resources and is not yet profitable. The vast majority of the A380s have been ordered by one airline, Emirates, whose business model as a long-haul “superconnector” it suits.
What is more, the first of Airbus’s high-tech A350s, with their fuselage and wings made of composite materials, will only be delivered later this year. Boeing’s competing 787 Dreamliner already took to the skies carrying passengers in 2011 and has over 1,000 orders, a couple of hundred more than the A350. And Boeing’s 777X, an updated version of another older plane due to be delivered in 2020, is also flying off the shelves. Emirates confirmed a massive order for 150 planes just before Farnborough.
The A330neo is intended to compete with a smaller version of the 787 and will likely fill a gap if, as expected, the smallest version of the A350 is withdrawn. Delivery could start in 2017. Airbus says that the new engines and lower capital cost of the old-new plane will make its operating costs “unbeatable”—a claim Boeing disputes.
Airbus reckons that it could sell as many as 1,000 A330neos. At the start of the show in Farnborough, Air Lease Corp, a big aircraft leasing firm, became the first customer with an order for 25 planes. If Airbus can line up more buyers, its current difficulties, such as Emirates’s recent announcement that it had cancelled an order for 70 A350s, will soon be forgotten. If not, Boeing’s chiding that Airbus is on the descent in big planes might start to look like more than a taunt.
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