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Posted on 11/28/2005 10:19:16 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
Emirates says it must be convinced the A350 will not repeat recent “misses” by Airbus in performance and delivery targets for new aircraft if it is to beat the Boeing 787 in the long-running battle to replace the airline’s 777-200ER fleet from the end of the decade.
Emirates airline president Tim Clark says the carrier’s requirement for a 777-200ER replacement is for an aircraft capable of seating 280 passengers in a three-class configuration or 320-340 passengers in two classes. “We continue to evaluate the A350-900 and 787-9 and proposed -10X,” he says.
While the larger size of the A350 over the 787-9 makes it the front-runner, Clark says recent experiences with new Airbus types not meeting all the manufacturer’s promises is partly responsible for Emirates’ indecision. “The A350-900 is a brilliant machine if it does what Airbus says it will, and we’ve told them that misses [on performance or delivery promises] will be unacceptable.”
Boeing is studying a double stretch of the 787, the -10X, primarily for Emirates’ needs, which Clark says is likely to be superior to the A350-900. But it is not certain this aircraft will be launched in the near future, and service entry is unlikely before 2012 – two years behind the A350 as now scheduled.
Emirates and Boeing stole the show with a huge $9.7 billion deal for up to 62 777s – comprising firm orders for 24 777-300ERs, 10 -200LRs and eight 777 Freighters, plus options on 20 more. Clark says the 777 deal does not affect its existing fleet of five A340-500s, and the airline still plans to take delivery of the 12 A340-600 high gross-weight aircraft it is due to receive in 2007-8.
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The sad thing is, no one knows what the economics will be till the plane is in service.
Ask all them MD-11 operators.
Emirates knows what they are doing though, great airline.
"....high gross-weight aircraft it is due to receive in 2007-8"
For the fat, ice cream eating arab crowd.
Small wonder why Emirates Airways might just just thumb their noses at Airbus and order a mixed fleet of 777-200ER's and 787-9's for future regional growth in flights.
They probably want to fly one into a city in the US..
How many airlines other than Finnair still fly passenger MD-11's?
I think DL still has a few, maybe Swiss, and Thai.
Its a damned good cargo plane though.
People keep saying Boeing should build the 787-10 as a replacement for the 777-200ER. Why couldn't Boeing replace the Al-Li alloy fuselage of the 777's with a composite fuseage of the same diameter while keeping the same wings and systems? This would decrease weight considerably and allow performance improvements in the 777's.
But isn't it tricky to load them due to the tail engine and its effects on the center of gravity? The 747-400F and 777-200LRF has the center of gravity located between the wings.
DL as in Delta? They pulled theirs in early 2003 or 2004, I remember seeing pictures of the last one (still wearing the old black-and-white "widget" paint, oddly enough) arriving at Atlanta from Narita to a full water-cannon salute. They're now using their 777-200s on the ATL-NRT route.
A couple of the ex-Delta planes are now flying for World, I think the rest are in storage.
}:-)4
Why are they replacing their 777-200ERs so soon, I wonder? Are the 787s really that much better than the very young 772s?
}:-)4
Brilliant machine. Yeah, right. Looks like all talk and no action.
"Sacre blue! I cannot lose! I am Napoleon!"
Wasn't sure how long they were keeping them, I thought they still had a few leased.
I forgot about World, very strange airline indeed. About 10 years ago they had something of a schedule, and I was able to fly them for nearly free, but I never could find a reservation center, or get through. Odd flights, like Orlando-Brussels, or Belfast to Baltimore.
They just bought out North American and they do well on military charters, as does ATA in their 5 L1011's.
As far as I know, those not flying are out in the desert. I don't know how many World got (at least two?), and whether any more of them got converted to freighters and sent to other operators. I saw an airliners.net pic of one sitting at, of all places, Montreal in '04, with the Delta name and logos stripped off but still with the Delta intermediate-color striping on it.
I'm not sure about Swiss, Thai I think is still flying them, and maybe KLM? I'm not sure if KLM retired theirs or not.
Too bad about the -11, really, but at least it's found a bit of a niche hauling cargo.
}:-)4
I think all of them are flying, mostly cargo. Thai has a few, and EVA has a few as well.
I only flew it once, from LA to Zurich, center seat, we pushed back, and had a 4 hour mechanical where we all had to stay on the plane.
Loads of fun.
Isn't the A350 using the same exact body from one of their other jets?
They are just going to use the same GE engines Boeing will be using on the 787, and ripping off the designs for the composite wing and body parts by Boeing.
So basically the A350 is just a cheap knockoff of the 787. Exactly what I expected from Airbust.
It's just a warmed over A300.
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