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The A321 XLR will be the latest addition to Airbus’ single-aisle A320 family when deliveries begin in 2023.
The XLR stands for very long range and the aircraft can more than handle the crossing of the North Atlantic, which opens up the possibility for airlines to use it on routes that were until now reserved for large aircraft. long-range carriers.
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Since the model was first presented at the Paris Air Show in June 2019, the aircraft has recorded more than 450 orders, including 37 last year.
Airbus, which said its new orders fell 65% in 2020 to 268, released its results on Thursday.
Boeing already reported an annual loss of $ 13.8 billion for its commercial aircraft division last month, with revenues halved by the pandemic to $ 16.1 billion.
“The XLR continues to benefit from very strong market demand,” said Christian Scherer, Airbus Commercial Director recently.
Among the 24 A321 XLR customers are American Airlines and compatriot United Airlines, who have ordered 50 each, while Australia’s Qantas wants 36.
The aircraft is positioned at what is referred to as the “middle of the market” in the aviation industry – the gap between narrow-body single-aisle aircraft and wide-body two-aisle aircraft.
The only aircraft to serve this segment was the single-aisle Boeing 757, which had a range of approximately 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 kilometers), and ended production in the mid-2000s.
This autonomy was sufficient for the plane to cross the North Atlantic, although it is complicated for the airlines to use it in practice, because in the event of strong wind, it would be necessary to make a refueling stop, throwing thus passenger travel plans with connecting flights. in chaos.
While the longest aircraft to date, the Airbus A320 family met the range of the Boeing 757, it is only with the XLR and its range of 4,700 nautical miles that airlines will be able to use the aircraft on carefree North Atlantic roads.
Prior to the pandemic, the aircraft was seen as a flexible option allowing airlines to test and develop new routes with less traffic in a more cost effective manner as it carries fewer passengers than large Airbus aircraft, A330s and A350.
With the pandemic having decimated air traffic, airlines are likely to need these planes even more as they rebuild their route networks.
“This corresponds very well to the needs of the market”, said Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus.
“It was the case before the pandemic, but we believe it will be even more the case after the pandemic”, he added.
Not a niche
A 321 XLR “costs a lot less to buy and maintain” as well as the flight of a wide-body plane, said Jerome Bouchard, aviation specialist at consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
Especially since “the training of pilots – an important cost element – can be shared between long-haul operations and those of short and medium-haul flights,” he told AFP.
The various versions of the A321 represent nearly half of the 6,355 single-aisle aircraft in the Airbus order book.
Airbus Scherer believes that the XLR “will be the main proportion of our A321s. I don’t see it as a niche.”
Boeing currently has nothing comparable to XLR to offer.
Last year, concerned about the 737 MAX crisis and struggling with nearly $ 64 billion in debt, Boeing decided not to go ahead with what it called its new aircraft project. average size (NMA).
The plan was to deliver by 2025 an aircraft capable of carrying up to 275 passengers over nearly 9,000 km.
For Teal Group aeronautics analyst Richard Aboulafia, this means that Airbus has seized the middle market at the very moment when “Covid-19 is accelerating the transition to the middle market”.
He said that “Boeing faces a very serious challenge in the middle market.”
If Boeing won in the 2000s with its choice to develop the long-haul B787 Dreamliner while Airbus left with the A380 super-jumbo, this time the situation is reversed.
The decision to cancel the NMA “will cost Boeing dearly, at least for the next decade,” Bouchard said.
But Boeing may not be abandoning the mid-market segment.
Comments from CEO David Calhoun last month left the impression that he was working on such a plan.
He said the firm was taking its time but that its engineers were moving forward “so that we are ready when the time comes to offer a truly differentiated product.”
The specialist newspaper Aviation Week reported that Boeing had started surveying its suppliers on an aircraft that could enter service at the end of the decade.
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