Airbus eyeing growing South Asian market

The resulting total need for around 330 aircraft comprises some 160 single aisle aircraft and about 170 widebodies.

The Toulouse-based consortium said that Airbus aircraft already form the backbone of airline fleets in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In fact, 60 per cent of Indian Airlines and Air India fleet comprises of Airbus aircraft.

The company is hoping that it would win more than 50 per cent of the growing market due to the commonality factor which is similar features such as common cockpits of the European consortium’s different aircraft types.

Since the pilot interface is virtually identical across the Airbus product line, pilots require less training when moving between different planes, saving airlines time and money. This key advantage over Boeing has already helped Airbus secure 476 new aircraft orders last year against 391 for its US rival — the first time in its history that Airbus sold significantly more planes than its Seattle-based rival.

In the fierce neck-to-neck sales battle between the Western world’s only makers of large commercial airliners, the order brings the Airbus new orders total for the year to 190 planes against 189 new orders for Boeing. “Much of Airbus’ success can be attributed to having the most modern airliner family and unmatched commonality among its wide range of aircraft,” said Senior Vice President Commercial of Airbus, John Leahy.

The European group, which is expected to be transformed from a consortium into a unit of European aerospace giant EADS in the coming months, will take a decision in the next few weeks on whether to proceed with development of a superjumbo plane which will have some 140 more seats than Boeing’s 747 jumbo.

Airbus hopes the 555-seat plane now called the A3XX will garner some 60 per cent of the market for extra-large planes over the next 20 years — a segment in which Boeing currently faces no direct competition. Six companies have already expressed interest in the A3XX which includes industry leaders like Air France, Emirates, leasing firm ILFC, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Three more unnamed airlines are expected to be the launch customers of A3XX which would start flying by year 2005.

Airline traffic is forecast to double in the next 15 years, and triple in the next 22 years and Airbus says A3XX is the most practical way of meeting this growth.

The company already boasts of expression of interests’ for 40 A3XX which would be the world’s largest passenger aircraft carrier and will offer two-decker configurations to its customers.

The aircraft maker is planning to increase its production rates so that it can deliver 310 aircraft, of all types, during 2000. This will increase to 330 aircraft in 2001 and to 400 by 2002.

With a turnover of $ 16.7 billion in 1999, Airbus is a consortium of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, France’s Aerospatiale Matra and state-owned Spanish aerospace firm Casa — all of which are merging to form EADS — plus Britain’s BAE Systems Plc.