Articolo da Aviation Weekly Newsletter
SYDNEY—Airbus expects to have produced around 100 A320neo family aircraft by the end of June that will not be able to be delivered because they are awaiting engines, said Guillaume Faury, president of Airbus Commercial Aircraft.
“This is a rather unique situation,” he said on the sidelines of the IATA AGM here. “We have an industrial crisis to manage. It is not a good situation. We try to communicate with our customers as well as we can.”
Airbus decided to continue A320neo production rather than holding off on building the aircraft so it can deliver them in the second half of the year, during which delivery rates will be “unprecedented,” Faury said. He expects the vast majority of the 100 parked aircraft to be delivered before the end of the year, and believes that Airbus’ target of handing over 800 aircraft or more this year is still achievable.
The approach also limits the impact on other parts of the supply chain, he pointed out. However, it has “a big impact on us,” both in terms of production complexity and planning on Airbus’ working capital with that many unfinished aircraft waiting to be delivered.
Airbus was forced to suspend Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-powered A320neo deliveries in February. Pratt had introduced into production modified knife edge seals to eliminate an inspection requirement, but in January fractures caused rotor vibration and stalling in four engines, two of which led to inflight shutdowns and two others to rejected take-offs. After Pratt went back to the original design seal as a quick fix, deliveries of Pratt-powered A320neos resumed in May.
Both Pratt and CFM International are “more or less” sticking to recovery plans they presented to Airbus at the beginning of the year, Faury said. The situation on the CFM side was “more manageable” with delays of engine deliveries of around two months. But Airbus’ own delivery stream of CFM Leap-1A powered A320neos will also be “backloaded,” meaning heavily tilted towards the end of the year.
Faury still believes that “there is an appetite in the market” for higher delivery rates. Airbus has started studying production rates of 70-75 single-aisle aircraft per month, but engine manufacturers have sent a lukewarm response given their current challenges to keep pace with the ongoing rate increase from 50 to 60 units per month. The next step of going beyond 60, likely initially to 63, would not happen until “the beginning of the next decade,” Faury said.
Such an additional ramp-up would come with investment in more automation and as Airbus changes the way it produces aircraft. “We do not want to invest into more of the same,” Faury said. He pointed to the fourth A320/A320neo final assembly line in Hamburg, which is planned to be opened later this year.
Faury conceded that the incoming U.S. sanctions on Iran “significantly hamper” the ability of both Airbus and Boeing to deliver aircraft to carriers in the country. “It is an unfortunate situation, but it is a political decision,” he said, stressing that Airbus “will comply” with all the rules that apply.
Aviation Daily
SYDNEY—Airbus expects to have produced around 100 A320neo family aircraft by the end of June that will not be able to be delivered because they are awaiting engines, said Guillaume Faury, president of Airbus Commercial Aircraft.
“This is a rather unique situation,” he said on the sidelines of the IATA AGM here. “We have an industrial crisis to manage. It is not a good situation. We try to communicate with our customers as well as we can.”
Airbus decided to continue A320neo production rather than holding off on building the aircraft so it can deliver them in the second half of the year, during which delivery rates will be “unprecedented,” Faury said. He expects the vast majority of the 100 parked aircraft to be delivered before the end of the year, and believes that Airbus’ target of handing over 800 aircraft or more this year is still achievable.
The approach also limits the impact on other parts of the supply chain, he pointed out. However, it has “a big impact on us,” both in terms of production complexity and planning on Airbus’ working capital with that many unfinished aircraft waiting to be delivered.
Airbus was forced to suspend Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-powered A320neo deliveries in February. Pratt had introduced into production modified knife edge seals to eliminate an inspection requirement, but in January fractures caused rotor vibration and stalling in four engines, two of which led to inflight shutdowns and two others to rejected take-offs. After Pratt went back to the original design seal as a quick fix, deliveries of Pratt-powered A320neos resumed in May.
Both Pratt and CFM International are “more or less” sticking to recovery plans they presented to Airbus at the beginning of the year, Faury said. The situation on the CFM side was “more manageable” with delays of engine deliveries of around two months. But Airbus’ own delivery stream of CFM Leap-1A powered A320neos will also be “backloaded,” meaning heavily tilted towards the end of the year.
Faury still believes that “there is an appetite in the market” for higher delivery rates. Airbus has started studying production rates of 70-75 single-aisle aircraft per month, but engine manufacturers have sent a lukewarm response given their current challenges to keep pace with the ongoing rate increase from 50 to 60 units per month. The next step of going beyond 60, likely initially to 63, would not happen until “the beginning of the next decade,” Faury said.
Such an additional ramp-up would come with investment in more automation and as Airbus changes the way it produces aircraft. “We do not want to invest into more of the same,” Faury said. He pointed to the fourth A320/A320neo final assembly line in Hamburg, which is planned to be opened later this year.
Faury conceded that the incoming U.S. sanctions on Iran “significantly hamper” the ability of both Airbus and Boeing to deliver aircraft to carriers in the country. “It is an unfortunate situation, but it is a political decision,” he said, stressing that Airbus “will comply” with all the rules that apply.
Aviation Daily