The A350 & the A380 are frowned upon by ILFC & GECAS

What a bad day for Airbus, what should have been a good day for Airbus, with the successful evacuation testing of the A380, turns into a bad one.

Steve Hazy (head of the ILFC) & the head of GECAS were in a meeting with 600 executives from around the aviation industry & proceeded to talk down the A350. For those that don't know, ILFC & GECAS are two of the largest companies that purchase aircraft, ILFC alone owns about 800 aircraft, which is larger than most airlines.....

Truly devastating, as Airbus was in the audience......


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... ing29.html

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Udvar-Hazy said in the interview that as a leasing company attuned to an airplane as a long-term financial investment, "we want to have long-term residual value in the A350. ... We're not interested in a Band-aid reaction to the 787."

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He said sales of the superjumbo A380 - at best "300 or 400 airplanes," he estimated - cannot compensate for missing out in the much larger midsize wide-body market.

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http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/03/ ... iss001.cfm

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Hazy predicted that Airbus will announce even more changes to its A350 design by the Farnborough Air Show this summer, to better compete with Boeing's 787.

The problem, he said, is that the A350 is a hybrid incorporating a some of the technology advances Boeing has put into the 787, but it is still firmly wedded to Airbus' traditional product lines and is not different enough from the A330, which it is supposed to replace.

In terms of its fuselage size, "it's still an old A300," Hazy said. "It's not optimized. It's not where the 777 and 787 are."

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Thats a nice boost to Boeing!

Wow talk about a kick in the face to Airbus. Certainly not good when two of the most respected people in the community get up and say "your product stinks redo it."

How could Airbus catch up at this point if they decided to scrap the A350 and design something totally new? The 787 will be already flying a full two years before the A350 takes off. By that time the benefits of the 787 will be fully realized and what could Airbus do at that point to woo customers back? It seems like they may very well be sacrificing an entire market and giving it to Boeing.

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Originally Posted by T-Bird76

Wow talk about a kick in the face to Airbus. Certainly not good when two of the most respected people in the community get up and say "your product stinks redo it."

How could Airbus catch up at this point if they decided to scrap the A350 and design something totally new? The 787 will be already flying a full two years before the A350 takes off. By that time the benefits of the 787 will be fully realized and what could Airbus do at that point to woo customers back? It seems like they may very well be sacrificing an entire market and giving it to Boeing.

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The 767-300ER had it's first delivery in 88, the A333 in 93, wich gives the 767 a 5 year head start. I wouldn't exactly call the A330 the loser, it's winning the game bigtime. All you need is a good product.

As I've said before, Airbus simply chose to go after the wrong market....one that didn't really exist.....in an economic/aviation "my penis is bigger than yours" contest.

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Originally Posted by JRadier

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Originally Posted by T-Bird76

Wow talk about a kick in the face to Airbus. Certainly not good when two of the most respected people in the community get up and say "your product stinks redo it."

How could Airbus catch up at this point if they decided to scrap the A350 and design something totally new? The 787 will be already flying a full two years before the A350 takes off. By that time the benefits of the 787 will be fully realized and what could Airbus do at that point to woo customers back? It seems like they may very well be sacrificing an entire market and giving it to Boeing.

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The 767-300ER had it's first delivery in 88, the A333 in 93, wich gives the 767 a 5 year head start. I wouldn't exactly call the A330 the loser, it's winning the game bigtime. All you need is a good product.

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I'm not sure I understand what your saying but that's ok... The 767 was on the market for over 10 years before the A330 came about. Regardless of when the 300ER first flew the 767 is by far head over heels far more successful then the A330. The A330 was the answer to an aging 767 design like the 787 is an answer for a 777-200/ER, 767-300ER, and A300 replacement.

Look at the stats thus far when you compare the 787 with the A350. Orders for the 787 are through the roof vs the A350 and if Airbus has to go back to the drawing board they will lose customers plain and simple. The statements made today were a huge blow to Airbus. Its not good when two of the largest customers on the planet openly say "its no good".

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Originally Posted by JRadier

The 767-300ER had it's first delivery in 88, the A333 in 93, wich gives the 767 a 5 year head start. I wouldn't exactly call the A330 the loser, it's winning the game bigtime. All you need is a good product.

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The A330 was a good aircraft, still is. Now, the 787 is the aircraft of tomorrow, while the A350 is a rehash of yesterdays aircraft ideas & some improvements, what they made, was the aircraft of today. Which is why Hazy was very critical of the A350 & Airbus's business plan.

Don't worry, some time ago, it was Boeing that was getting a good spanking, Boeing took their lumps & went back to the drawing board....

Oh, to be fair, the first 767 was delivered in 1978

As for aircraft sales, lets see how they line up:

767 - 966 aircraft sold
757 - 1050 aircraft sold
A330 - 533 aircraft sold
A340 - 385 aircraft sold

Wasn't the first delivery of the 767 in '82? I thought the first orders occured around '78.

the 310 was more the competition for the 767 then the 330