Reported by Vinay Bhaskara
On the sidelines of yesterday’s A319 delivery event to American Airlines, Airchive spoke with Airbus Chief Operating Officer – Customers John Leahy, who confirmed to us that the much discussed “regional” version of the widebody Airbus A330 aircraft is just an existing A330 with de-rated engines. He told us about the changes that will bring about this “regional” A330:
Its a de-rated engine, lower takeoff rate on the airplane, and higher cycles obviously, and its going back full circle to when the airplane began; it was a regional airplane and then we built it up into a different airplane. Now we are bringing it back to a regional version for a lot of people; lower engine thrust, lower engine maintenance costs, lower price, lower take off weight. So it will be a regional airplane.
He also agreed that Asia would be a target market for this new A330 phase:
I think it will be very good for Asia, I think it will be ideal for China. They have a lot of trips of 4 or 5 hours so this is a widebody plane optimized for 4 to 5 hours to really reduce congestion at some of the airports in China and around Asia.
And Leahy clarified his recent remarks on the Boeing 787 in Tolouse for us:
That was the comparison of a 787 and an A330. On an A330, you can fly from New York to Tokyo, carrying the same number of passengers as the 787-8, with wider seats. You’ll burn about 12% more fuel but you’ll have a 30% better capital cost and higher dispatch reliability.
Asian carrier Singapore Airlines has long operated a fleet of Boeing 777-200ER aircraft with de-rated engines for services within Asia. Airbus has already made several enhancements to its A330-300 variant, including increasing the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) to 242 metric tones. It remains unclear the timeline over which this de-rated A330 will be launched, and how much it will cost.
About Vinay Bhaskara
A photograph of myself standing in front of the CFM 56-5 engine of the Airbus A319. Much smaller than the A380 engine I saw earlier in the day.
Vinay Bhaskara is an aviation correspondent and analyst for Airchive.com based in Chicago, Illinois. He has been covering the industry in some form since 2008, and currently covers the industry for Bangalore Aviation and Aspire Aviation in addition to his duties for Airchive. His area of specialty lies in airline finance and business practices, as well in data analysis. Bhaskara has been an avgeek since his first long haul flight, when his fascination with Delta’s route map birthed a lifelong passion. In his life beyond aviation, Bhaskara is the co-founder of Admissions Hero, a college consulting service tailored towards students seeking acceptance to elite American universities. He also co-authored an SAT prep book and 2 ebooks related to aviation. In what little free time he has, he enjoys watching and playing all types of sports, as well as binge-watching USA Network television shows and Bollywood films. Follow him on Twitter @TheABVinay, connect with him via his Facebook page, or reach him via email at vinay.bhaskara@airchive.com.
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