Airbus Expects Competition To Its Long-Range Hauler

While so much of the news from Paris this week has been who will buy what airplanes from rival manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, some at the Paris Air Show were looking into their crystal balls to see where the next battle lines would be drawn. The answer seemed to be what would Boeing do to compete with the new A350-1000 widebody from Airbus.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Tom Williams, head of programs at Airbus, told Dow Jones Newswires "When we launched the A350-1000 we could see it was an airplane that was clearly going to attack Boeing's 777. We always had in our mind a business case that this would probably provoke a reaction because the 777 has been such an important and successful program for Boeing."

And in fact, Boeing did discuss the possibility of launching a new, all-composite replacement to the 777, which is the largest twin-engine jet flying today. It is about the same size as the A350, but flies less efficiently. Airlines have been flying the 777 since 1995.

"We knew that Boeing wouldn't sit back and let us steal their 777 business. We always recognized that they would counter-attack and we wouldn't have the A350-1000 market all to ourselves," Williams said. "They'll probably come back with a significant upgrade on today's airplane, or they'll come out with an all-new one. So we're waiting to see the color of the smoke."

The paper reports that the first 350 to enter service will the 900 series. It will be followed by the 1000 model about two years later. But flight testing is not scheduled to begin with the airplane until late in 2011. 

FMI: www.airbus.com