The Airbus A330neo is embarking on a global tour as it enters the final phase of its certification program and the European manufacturer hopes airlines will show renewed interest as the aircraft struts its stuff.
The 23,000nm (43,000km) exercise, known as route proving, is using the first A330-900 production aircraft and will include (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards (ETOPS) ) missions, landing at diversion airports and testing airport handling services.
After a fly-past over Airbus’ European sites, the A330neo will head for 15 major airports worldwide over five continents as it aims for 150 flight test hours in three trips.
Destinations will include Chicago, Atlanta and Miami in the US, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in South America and Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Bangkok in Asia.
READ More airlines looking at ultra-long-range routes.
The aircraft, which first flew on May 15, will be kitted out with the manufacturer’s Airspace cabin and be flying in launch customer TAP Air Portugal’s colors. TAP is due to receive its first aircraft later this northern summer.
The route proving tests form part of the final trials required for aircraft Type Certification scheduled for summer 2018.
Two A330-900 flight test aircraft and the TAP customer aircraft are involved in the intensive flight test programme, which will reach 1,000 flight hours during the tour of the Airbus plants.
Launched in July 2014, Airbus has offered A330neo in two versions with 99 percent commonality, the A330-800 and A330-900.
However, the future of the A330-800 is in doubt after its sole customer, Hawaiian Airlines, canceled its order for six aircraft.
Airbus also lost a campaign to sell the A330neo to American Airlines after it was unwilling to match the price Boeing offered.
No new A330neo orders have been announced so far this year and the manufacturer announced in April it would trim total deliveries to 50 in 2019, compared to 67 in 2017.
The manufacturer has 214 firm orders for the A330-900 with AirAsia the biggest customer with 66 planes. The aircraft, powered by the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engine, accommodates 287 seats in a standard three-class layout or up to 440 for high-density configurations. Airbus puts its range at 6550nm (12,130km).
A planned higher-weight version of the plane is expected to add another 650nm in range with reinforcements to the landing gear, wing and fuselage.
Airbus chief commercial officer Eric Schulz conceded on the sidelines of the recent International Air Transport Association conference in Sydney that the route proving was when the rubber hit the road.
“And so far we are extremely satisfied with the performance of the plane .. after the first phase of flight tests,” he said. “In terms of delivery, we are working very closely with TAP but we are within the last delivery dates we made public before so there is no change.
“If anything the program is doing quite well now.”
On the question of demand, Schulz acknowledged Airbus had suffered two defeats in a row with Hawaiian and American and the losses were unfortunate.
“In this particular case, I am not particularly anxious about the future of the 330neo,” he said. “Just here over the last three days I’ve seen many, many customers very interested about the neo and we have deals in process.
“I am quite hopeful that we will continue to find our place in the market.”
Schulz said the North American market had also been difficult for the A330ceo and he would focus on other markets.
“I think when people will start to see what has been done with that airplane and the capability, the extra range it offers, the extra payload it offers when we reach higher max take-off gross weight, I think people will realize what a good solution it is,” he said.
NEW A320 PRODUCTION LINE LAUNCHED
The A330neo flight comes after Airbus inaugurated its fourth A320 family production line in Hamburg on June 14.
The manufacturer said the new production line used digital technologies and a more flexible set-up that will be a key to plans to boost single-aisle production to 60 aircraft per month.
Airbus manufactures the highly successful A320 in production sites in Europe, China and the US.
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Airlines have ordered more than 14,000 A320ceo and A320neo aircraft and Airbus has delivered 8100.
The more efficient A320neo, which promises 15 percent fuel savings at delivery and 20 percent by 2020, has captured a market share of almost 60 percent with more than 6000 orders from 100 customers.
But it has been plagued by issues with Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan engine and with some batches of the alternative CFM Leap-1A powerplant.
Airbus’ Schulz said the company was in consistent dialogue with the manufacturers.
“We are in discussions with both, we have recovery plans from both and I would say we are reassessing every day based on their deliveries where we stand.
“I think this gives us a challenging ride because for a period of time we ‘ve had less engines than we wanted but so far they are sticking to their recovery plan.”
Schulz said Airbus was still not “100 percent relaxed” and acknowledged there was a steep learning curve to get through.
“But so far they are delivering what they committed to so so far we can see that the system seems to work,” he said, noting that the technical understanding of the problems had progressed well.
Both Airbus and the manufacturers also faced the problem of ramping up capacity, he said.
