First Plane To Enter Service In 2013
ANN REALTIME
UPDATE 12.01.06 1815 EST: It's officially official! Late
Friday afternoon, the board at EADS gave the go-ahead for the
development and production of the Airbus A350XWB, a new widebody
airliner to compete against the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the
Boeing 777.
The approval does not come without some bad news for Airbus,
however. Under the plan approved by EADS Friday, the first A350XWB
will not enter revenue service until 2013 at the earliest -- one
year later than was announced at the unveiling of the XWB program
in July, and five years after the 787 is scheduled to enter
service.
Barring significant delays in the Boeing program, that will
likely give the Dreamliner a significant head-start in
the midsize airliner market. As they say, however... better late,
than never.
Original Report
It's official -- the Airbus A350XWB program may soon move from
the realm of the theoretical into the practical, as shareholders at
parent company EADS have authorized an approximately $13
billion financing package to pay for the plane's
development.
The Financial Times reports shareholders at the European
Aeronautics Defense and Space Co. voted Thursday night on the
funding plan, which calls on EADS to provide about $8 billion
upfront, with the remaining $5 billion coming in loan guarantees
from governments with a stake in the aerospace consortium --
France, Britain, Germany, and Spain.
The plan will go before the EADS board Friday... where a source
close to the deal tells Reuters it is 90 percent certain to pass
muster.
"There are two outstanding issues: state aid and the German
position, but the hardest bits were dealt with yesterday," the
source said.
As Aero-News reported,
Germany's DaimlerChrysler is looking to reduce its stake in EADS
from the current 22.5 percent, to closer to 15 percent.
A group of German banks is rumored to be interested in the
sale -- and that would mix up the percentage of funding due to come
from DaimlerChrysler.
As it stands, the $5 billion loan guarantee package is nearly
five times the original government commitment on the A350 program
-- but that was before Airbus thoroughly redesigned the
plane, to present a more worthy competitor to the
upcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The added costs come from the more
clean-sheet approach to the XWB; the original A350 was heavily
based on the current Airbus A330 twinjet.
The added government subsidies are likely to further increase
tensions between the United States and the European Union. Both
sides are locked in a bitter dispute before World Trade
Organization, each accusing the other of providing illegal aid to
their respective aerospace manufacturers.
If approved, first flight of the A350XWB is slated for 2012.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
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