Why would one buy A345 or A343 when they can buy A350?
A350 will be cheaper as initial investment, will have 2 engines instead of 4 taking into consideration the ETOPS for the new engines will be enormous, the range will be more than A343 and close enough to the A345, and will save lots on fuel and a bit on maintenance?
Pictures of the Airbus A350! (Awful!)
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A350
DC7-C I agree with your assessement, and include 333 & 333 there.
If you look at the way aircraft progress through their sales lifecycle, they usually spawn variants which have increased MTOW, longer range, higher payload etc. Once these become available, sales of the lighter variants, fall right off. Shrinks such as the 318 and 736 usually don't do too well.
This is why you will never see a 450 seat 380.
The 350 will kill 342,3, hurt 345, and 332,333, as well as the 7e7 of course.
$5.3 billion is a huge amount of money to spend on a derivative airplane, which won't even cover a segment of the market which is coming up for replacement. (A300,310, 767, some parts of 757).
A350 is a high end 7e7 and 777 competitor, but does neither as well.
So the only way Airbus will make a big impact with the 350 is price, and it is their misfortune that the dollar is so weak against the Euro a the present time, plus they have not flown the 380 yet, and to top it all off, composites are scaleable, aluminium not so easily, so expect a 7e7 style 737 replacement sooner rather than later, at a less than expected development cost. So by building the 350 they are further compromising themselves to Boeings strategy
IMO the response of Airbus should be to not develop the 350, but use pricing of the current 332 & 3 to buy sales and prevent the 7e7 having a clean sweep. When the cash starts to flow from the 380 program, then develop a totally new 300,310 330 replacement or go straight for a 320 replacement sooner than anyone expects.
The much vaunted Airbus 8 abreast aluminium fuselage is dead, and Airbus are making a serious mistake to stick with it.
Just my .002 cents worth.
Ruscoe
If you look at the way aircraft progress through their sales lifecycle, they usually spawn variants which have increased MTOW, longer range, higher payload etc. Once these become available, sales of the lighter variants, fall right off. Shrinks such as the 318 and 736 usually don't do too well.
This is why you will never see a 450 seat 380.
The 350 will kill 342,3, hurt 345, and 332,333, as well as the 7e7 of course.
$5.3 billion is a huge amount of money to spend on a derivative airplane, which won't even cover a segment of the market which is coming up for replacement. (A300,310, 767, some parts of 757).
A350 is a high end 7e7 and 777 competitor, but does neither as well.
So the only way Airbus will make a big impact with the 350 is price, and it is their misfortune that the dollar is so weak against the Euro a the present time, plus they have not flown the 380 yet, and to top it all off, composites are scaleable, aluminium not so easily, so expect a 7e7 style 737 replacement sooner rather than later, at a less than expected development cost. So by building the 350 they are further compromising themselves to Boeings strategy
IMO the response of Airbus should be to not develop the 350, but use pricing of the current 332 & 3 to buy sales and prevent the 7e7 having a clean sweep. When the cash starts to flow from the 380 program, then develop a totally new 300,310 330 replacement or go straight for a 320 replacement sooner than anyone expects.
The much vaunted Airbus 8 abreast aluminium fuselage is dead, and Airbus are making a serious mistake to stick with it.
Just my .002 cents worth.
Ruscoe
Excellent in-depth analysis Ruscoe. I may add that A319 will be hit hard & B717 will be dead when the new Bombardier jet under development comes out. It is specifically being built for many daily take-off/landings, will use composite materials, will have 2 variants of 110 & 135 PAX and will have a range of close to 6000 KM.
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BelugaBrain
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