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By Bjorn Fehrm

Introduction  

January 21, 2020, © Leeham News: Before the holidays, we started a series to look into Airbus’ A350 family. We analyzed the development program and how the variants have sold.

Initially, the A350-800 won about 180 orders. But as the market received more information about the smaller variant, the more it realized it wasn't an optimal airplane. It was never officially canceled. But orders was up-gauged to the A350-900. Airbus decided the variant wasn’t competitive and developed the A330neo instead. We now look into why.

Summary

• The A350-800 was positioned as Airbus' main defense against Boeing's new 787-9, the most efficient variant of the Dreamliner.
• As the A350 program was delayed, the A350-800 moved from an optimized variant to a "cut and shut" version. This compromised its efficiency.
• Gradually Airbus changed its strategy how to compete with the 787.