Qatar Airways have announced order for 80 Airbus A350XWB

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Lawrence
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Qatar Airways have announced order for 80 Airbus A350XWB

Post by Lawrence »

Hello.

20 x A350-800
40 x A350-900
20 x A350-1000

Congrats to QR and Airbus


Greetings

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ryanCX
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Post by ryanCX »

Glad for Airbus. They have some good news at last.

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Airbus330lover
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Re: QR have announced

Post by Airbus330lover »

Lawrence wrote:Hello.

20 x A350-800
40 x A350-900
20 x A350-1000

Congrats to QR and Airbus


Greetings
Good news for airbus.
When are the deliveries planned ?
QR not afraid for a major delay ?

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Andries
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Post by Andries »

Allthough this is just a MoA, this is good news. Some people will way this isn't worth anything until they firm up the orders, but in my eyes, this shows that QR likes the changes made to the A350 to make it the A350XWB.

I don't believe availability has anything to do with it as some of the earliest slots available for the 787 are in 2013, just the same time the A350XWB will be available. Looks to me that this is a very good deal for airbus. Firming up is expected at the Paris Air Show at the end of June ...
Airbus330lover wrote:When are the deliveries planned ?
QR not afraid for a major delay ?
Deliveries are planned to start late 2013, early 2014. Delays are not something that only affects Airbus, it could happen to Boeing as well. So if they are worried about delays, they should be worried no matter where they order theirs planes.

Greetz,

:twisted: Andries :twisted:
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David747
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Post by David747 »

This is the big order that Airbus needed for the A350 program. More importantly, Airbus rejected calls for a new design for the A350, which I believe means they are getting close to having a final design for the plane. Besides this order, Airbus needs new orders for the A350, and more importantly the A380.

achace
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Post by achace »

I think the most interesting development is the 20 XWB1000, which almost overlaps the existing Qatar 777 order.

The guarantees must have looked good.

Cheers
Achace

RC20
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Post by RC20 »

The term I read was “pledge”.

I don’t think there is any questions that Qatar is serious about the order and the A350. They have a preference for Airbus (JAL and NA have their preference for Boeing). .

Qatar has shown they will buy what they need to from Boeing. Note also, that if the reports are right, they have 30 firm 787 orders (options unknown until the official announcement). That would indicate very strongly they view the two as different markets. Its interesting that Qatar quietly negotiates deals with Boeing, but negotiates in the media with Airbus.

Airbus still has to deliver, and keep in mind, the 787 is extremely close to verifying if its real or not, and the A350 has not even been firmed up design wise. Av Week reported they were still considering the fuselage being wider (which makes sense as it’s a 777 competitor rather than a 787 competitor).

It sound like Qatar was heavily involved in the design. That’s not a good thing, what you really want is a wider input, as it needs to have legs beyond a single airline and its operating structure and flight profiles.

You can bet there is some serious penalty clauses written into it for failed delivery dates, and lack of performance, and very likely far stricter than the previous ones.

And while the availability dates are close supposedly, Boeing certainly is doing a lot of planning to ramp up production as soon as they can, and that changes that equation as well.

Mostly I think the A350 is a very interesting paper project right now, and a whole lot of firm designing has to be done, as well as bringing it together. There is still a lot of room time wise for significant design changes. It will be 2 years before its firmed up for sure, and then the process of actually delivering hardware after that.

achace
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Post by achace »

The XWB1000 now asks a very serious question about where GE are going.

They now have to decide if they are with the XWB programme or not.

Cheers
Achace

AirDupont
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Post by AirDupont »

Have they even thought of where to get their crew from? They're the airline with the highest turn over in crew... people resignng daily

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David747
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Post by David747 »

A350-1000's will be used with the 777's for Qatar's long haul routes. It could also be replacements for the 777-300 as weird as it sounds. The XWB will fill the gap between the A340's and 2 A380's on order for Qatar.

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bits44
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Post by bits44 »

Quote from John Leahy yesterday:
Speaking to reporters yesterday via conference call, Leahy said he expects more than 200 orders for the XWB by year end and noted that "the design of the airplane is frozen," contradicting reports from customers and Airbus insiders that the manufacturer was set to introduce an all-composite fuselage (Aponline, May 25). The airframe will contain 52% composite materials, he revealed.
So judging from that statement there will not be a wound barrel version but rather the composite panel on aluminum frame as originally planned in version 2 or 3.

If you're confused about who's telling the truth, so are many of us, I guess we'll have to wait for Paris to see what the final edition is going to be. :roll:
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David747
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Post by David747 »

bits44 wrote:Quote from John Leahy yesterday:
Speaking to reporters yesterday via conference call, Leahy said he expects more than 200 orders for the XWB by year end and noted that "the design of the airplane is frozen," contradicting reports from customers and Airbus insiders that the manufacturer was set to introduce an all-composite fuselage (Aponline, May 25). The airframe will contain 52% composite materials, he revealed.
So judging from that statement there will not be a wound barrel version but rather the composite panel on aluminum frame as originally planned in version 2 or 3.

If you're confused about who's telling the truth, so are many of us, I guess we'll have to wait for Paris to see what the final edition is going to be. :roll:
Bits44 thanks for that. I guess Airbus will probably give its latest version of the A350 at Paris. A350 version 11.0.

smokejumper
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Post by smokejumper »

Given that Airbus has a customer for the A350XWB (Qatar) and has apparently promised delivery in 2013 several things seem apparent:

1) As observed by RC20, there are probably strict penalties for late delivery or performance shortfall. I am sure that the penalty contract statements will contain terms that will make them easier to collect than those for the A380 (airlines are still negotiating with Airbus to collect; Airbus apparently is offering discounts on planes, rather than cash!)
2) Airbus must now get down to the real business of designing a real plane in order to meet delivery dates. They can no longer screw around with incremental, new, improved concepts that still don’t equal the 787 in design technology.
3) The A350XWB is more directly a 777 competitor and less of a 787 competitor. It is wider than the 787 (hence the term Xtra Wide Body) but narrower than the 777. All else being equal, a narrower fuselage can be expected to offer less air resistance and lower fuel consumption. But all is not equal; engines, wing design, overall drag, etc. come into the picture.
4) Due to the 2013 delivery date, we can expect flight test to start in 2012, so Airbus must get down to businesses and design the plane, release the drawings for manufacturing, obtain the tooling and long lead time items and, assemble the plane. Hopefully, they can meet the deadlines without delay.
5) Boeing has had much experience with large composite structural assemblies through military contracts; I do not believe that Airbus possesses similar experience with large structural composite parts. Thus, the proposed design (carbon panels over an aluminum structural frame) appears to be a safer bet, abet heavier and lower technology. A lower risk approach is the wisest approach.
6) In a few months, we’ll begin to learn whether the Boeing 787 really meets its expectations. It will be 5-6 years before we can learn whether the A350 will meet its expectations (although I’m sure John Leahy will keep us up to date).

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