Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Bjorn’s Corner: Production rates
By Bjorn Fehrm
20 November 2015, ©. Leeham Co: Emirates Airline CEO, Tim Clark, is quoted as having said “it takes them forever to get this thing up.” He was talking about the Airbus A350 production rate and his reasons for delaying Emirates’ decision on what to buy for the airlines medium range needs. Clark said Emirates wants more aircraft in operational use before they can evaluate the operational characteristics of the A350.
Emirates want to see at least 20 aircraft in operation and right now it is about seven to nine that fly every day. Actual deliveries stand at 10 with one month to go before the first anniversary when deliveries started (the first A350-900 was delivered to Qatar Airways on the 22 December 2014).
Looking at how many aircraft that are actually flying, one can agree with him. It seems actual production rate is more like one per month rather than the three to four a month that Airbus talked about at the first delivery ceremony.
So why is this? Is the production of A350 therefore in serious trouble? What is taking them so long? Has Emirates pointed to a weak part of the A350 program?
Europe’s airlines: LCC, the winning formula
By Bjorn Fehrm
Nov. 18 2015, ©. Leeham Co: Easyjet revealed record numbers yesterday with pretax profits now at 14.6% of a year turnover of £4,686m. The load-factors for their aircraft are at a record 91.5% on a 12 month basis, with an increase of 1.5% for the period. The return on employed capital has increased to a high 22.2% from 20.5%.
The LCC now transports 69m passenger per year and continues to increase its capacity and efficiency. Airbus yesterday announced that easyJet has signed a firm order for a further 36 A320 Family aircraft, taking its cumulative order for the type to 451. The agreement for six A320ceos and 30 A320neos makes easyJet one of the world’s biggest airline customers for the A320ceo Family with 321 ordered and also for the A320neo, with 130 on order.
Earlier in November Ryanair had announced their record results, further manifesting their investment grade rating. At the same time Europe’s largest airlines, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, are engaged in difficult negotiations to reduce their personnel costs, a mission riddled with strikes and confrontation. The once reliable Lufthansa is no longer.
What is the reason for this divergence in the market? Read more
Emirates’ 615 seat A380, is it more economical?
By Bjorn Fehrm
Subscription required.
Introduction
Nov. 11, 2015, ©. Leeham Co: Emirates Airline showed off its newly delivered two class A380 at this week’s Dubai Air Show. With a record 615 seats, this is the densest A380 that has been delivered by Airbus.
Emirates have reached this record seat number by replacing the first class cabin (and showers) with economy seats. Part of the business area has gone as well. What remains on the Premium side are 58 of the well known lie-flat seats and the ubiquitous Emirates bar.
The aircraft is aimed at high density destinations which are reached within a 12 hours limit, therefore the aircraft has no crew rest facilities.
The question is, what improvements in seat-mile costs does this configuration bring and how does it stack up against a similarly configured Boeing 777-300ER or 777-9?
Will there be a change in the economical pecking order compared to the more classical long range configurations that we looked at December last year?
We used our proprietary performance model to find out.
Summary:
- To be fair to all aircraft, we equipped them with similar high density two class cabins.
- We also kept the ratio of business-to-economy seats the same for all cabins.
- The result is high capacity workhorses that are used for flying passengers and cargo at sector lengths of up to 12 hours. Consequently, none of the aircraft have crew rest facilities.
- We then looked at fuel efficiency, Cash Operating Costs and Direct Operating Costs for these long-haulers now given a mostly mid-haul work scope.
Emirates’ mid-range choice
By Bjorn Fehrm
Nov. 10 2015, ©. Leeham Co: The Dubai Air Show is on its second day and there are no mega orders. The one that should have been, the mid-range requirement for Emirates Airline, has been postponed, not only to “next year” but for “another year.”
What is the reason? Are we seeing a widebody oversupply fueled by used Boeing 777s/Airbus A330s being available in the market “for very low prices,” as suggested by Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson? Are these the first signs of a damping of an order bonanza which has been going on for five years? Will things be more quiet (or should we say normal) going forward?
We don’t think so. Emirates just want to make the right choice and the equation has got more complicated as it has been working the problem. And it is in no hurry.
Pontifications: A380neo? Try A380TXWB. Dubai Air Show and other Odds and Ends
Click on image to enlarge. Airbus photo.
Nov. 9, 2015, (c) Leeham Co. Airbus last week launched its A380 flying test bed with the A350-1000’s Rolls-Royce Trent XWB 97,000 lb engine placed in the number two position.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw the photo was that if Airbus put three more engines on it, you’d have the A380neo. Or maybe call it the A380TXWB. Done and dusted, as they say in England.
Bjorn’s Corner: Aircraft systems, the real nuts to crack
By Bjorn Fehrm
06 November 2015, ©. Leeham Co: COMAC’s C919 was rolled out in the week. We got to see a new shiny aircraft which looked ready to fly. The nicely curved fuselage and wings were immaculate, the paint was shiny and the CFM LEAP-1C engines were ready to go.
Yet many ask, when will it fly for the first time? It used to be that when the airframe was finished and the engines ran reliably it was time to fly. No longer! Today the most challenging part of an aircraft program is the integration of all the complex systems which hide under the skin. This is what kept the Bombardier CSeries on ground longer than it should and the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 had the same flu (the latter also had to short wires).
It is the part of the aircraft which takes longest to get to work reliably. The A380 is known for its long period of nuisance warnings from the complex avionics system after entry into service and the reliability work for the 787 has to a large extent been one of software tuning of its system side.
As the system function of modern aircraft has grown more complex the whole architecture of how it was built had to be changed. Here’s how.
No fear of C919 for a generation
Nov. 4, 2015, © Leeham Co. The first COMAC C919 was rolled out of the factory over the weekend, China’s mainline entry into the fiercely competitive arena now “owned” by the Airbus-Boeing duopoly.
COMAC C919. Click on image to enlarge. Photo via Google images.
Although the two giants each has said China is the next competitor they will have to face, the Big Two have nothing to worry about for a generation to come.
Here’s why.
“MAD” at Airbus, Boeing?
Nov. 3, 2015, © Leeham Co. Aerospace analysts are weighing in on 3Q2015 Friday’s earnings call on the Airbus announcement that it will lift A320 production to 60/mo by mid-2019 and may go to 63/mo the following year.
Figure 1. Click on image to enlarge.
Way back in February we predicted Airbus and Boeing will take their single-aisle production rates to 63/mo. (Figure 1.)
Ken Herbert, the aerospace analyst for Canaccord, noted that even with the same higher rates, Boeing will still out-produce Airbus because Boeing works on a 12-month year and Airbus shuts down the assembly line for a summer vacation. His forecast production chart takes this into account (Figure 2.)
Pointifications: Wide-body orders; Bombardier’s $1bn
By Scott Hamilton
Nov. 2, 2015, © Leeham Co. Boeing gets an order for up to 26 787-10s.
Airbus firms up options to an order for 30 A330s, added to 45 previously announced by the same customer.
Boeing announces an order for nine 787-9s.
For all the talk of a wide-body surplus, this is shaping up to be a good year for wide-body orders.
Through September, Airbus recorded 90 firm wide-body orders, all but three for the A330 family. Boeing recorded 152 during the same period (these are net figures). Not included are any of the orders listed above, which have yet to be recorded as firm contracts.
Based on the YTD-September figures and those above, Airbus has a 42% share of orders this year; Boeing has 58%.