The real reason for Airbus to choose their A35K destinations
While Asia and Middle East avgeeks are enthusiastically packing up their gears to spot Airbus’ A350-1000, Melbourne and Chinese spotters found themselves being left out.
There are 3 airlines flying their A350-900s into Melbourne, compared to barely China Airlines in Sydney. As such, it seems more reasonable for Airbus to bring their A35K to Melbourne (YBBN). The decision to pick Sydney as Airbus tour destination has flabbergasted dozens of Aussie avgeeks. Same as Chinese spotters. There are 6 airlines flying their A359s to Beijing and Shanghai respectively. Despite the large A350 presence, Airbus still chose to fly over China but to land at Muscat, where little commercial A359 operations.
Well... its all about money. Airbus is not wasting a multi-million demonstration tour just to show off their planes. Instead, they’re taking advantage to gain more potential orders. There are two main goals for the A350 Demonstration Tour. The first one is to allow airline technicians to get used to the handling characteristics of this new jet. The second one is to demonstrate A35K’s capabilities before Boeing 777-X has its first flight.
If you have a look at the destinations of this A350 Demonstration Tour, Muscat, Sydney, and Auckland are the only pit stops where no base operators have ordered A350s. However, they all have the same commonality - they need ultra-long haul jets.
Airbus needs to advertise their long-haul jets before Boeing does, as the French manufacturer is finding difficulties to bridge the A330s and A380s. Sales for the A350-1000 has dreadful last year, with only 1 new order from a disclosed customer. As Boeing is seeing delays in their Boeing 777-9 programme where they pushed back the jet's maiden flight to around February 2019 (four months later than initially planned), Airbus is seizing this opportunity to sell their planes before customers choose the 777X.
The main goal of the Sydney pit-stop is to woo Qantas to buy their A350-900URL/-1000 instead of the Boeing 777X. The Australian flagship carrier wishes to connect Eastern Europe with Brisbane and Sydney by 2022 and had previously challenged Airbus and Boeing to provide specifications of their ultra long haul concept. The carrier said that they will do a 12-month evaluation before issuing a formal tender for an order, with the number of aircraft having not yet been decided.
Therefore, Airbus has specifically designed a “Qantas only” flight last Monday, where Qantas executives, pilots, and engineers explored the features of A350-1000 over Sydney skies for around 90 minutes.
Qantas previously stated that 300 seater planes can give the airline highest possible revenue and fleet flexibility. Hence, they may also opt for the Boeing 777-8 for an 18-20 hour flight to Rio de Janeiro and Capetown
“The aircraft can do it today, both the 777 and the A350, but we believe it can’t do it with full payload”
Qantas has been a major customer for both Airbus and Boeing widebodies but has never ordered the A350 or the 777.
Virgin Australia is now focusing on its narrow fleet development, and Airbus do not see the need to show off their A35X to the airline. In addition, sources say there is little chance for the airline to order either A350-900 or -1000s, as most Virgin Australia's partner airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand have Boeing 787s and it saves cost to partner maintenance facilities with other carriers than to build a new one in their Melbourne base.
As for Muscat, Oman’s national airline has been previously in talks with Airbus and Boeing, wishing to expand its wide-body fleet to 25 jets. Sources say they will be announcing their deals in the next two to three months.
“We have negotiations currently with Airbus and Boeing. If (Boeing) has a good offer, we may take all, or we could have a mixture of Airbus A350 with the Boeing 787,” their CEO said before.
Winning an order from Oman Air is vital for Airbus. The airline will be having 17 widebody aircrafts this year, which includes 787 and A330. The A330s are the oldest in their fleet and is expected to be retired by 2025.
Not winning this order will mean that Oman Air will become an all Boeing widebody airline by that time. Airbus maintenance facilities will be sold out. This will mean that the middle east carrier will have little chance to buy additional Airbus jets in the future for cost savings. The airline has previously stated they will phrase out regional aircrafts and focus on Airbus/Boeing aircraft. With the airline committed orders for 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8s last year, it is also likely for them to commit large orders for A320neos to replace their Embraer fleet. It will be a defeat for Airbus if they cannot win an A350 order from Oman Air.
During the tour, the A350-1000 flight test aircraft (MSN065) has visited 12 destinations to demonstrate the aircraft’s exclusive features to airlines. The itinerary will see it travel over 30,000 nautical miles / 55,500 kilometers, with stops in Doha, Muscat, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Hanoi, Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo, and Manila.
MSN065 is one of the three Airbus A350-1000 test aircraft and is equipped with a fully functional cabin (40 business class, 36 economy plus class and 219 comfort economy class seats). The demonstration flights will be operated by Airbus flight test crews.
Photos by @sydneyaviation on Instagram