Airbus is conducting a press conference in Paris formally launching the A350XWB this morning. You can watch the press conference live by following this link.
Early news coming out includes the fact that the European manufacturer is delaying the launch of its A350XWB by roughly one year under a plan approved on Friday by the EADS board of directors.
The European manufacturer now expects the first entry into service in 2013 rather than the mid-2012 inaugural scheduled under plans unveiled at July’s Farnborough air show.
The first derivative will still be the mid-sized 314-seat A350-900, an Airbus North America spokesman tells ATI, adding that the manufacturer still intends to follow this with the launch of the 270-seat A350-800 and then the 350-seat A350-1000.
Airbus today also confirmed that a freighter version of the -900 is also included in the program - which has been valued at €10 billion (about $13 billion), and notes that a -900R extended derivative will also be considered.
Under Airbus’s initial launch plan, the 265t -900 was to enter service in mid-2012, with the 245t -800 following in the first quarter of 2013 and the 290t -1000 flying 12 months later. Only the launch plans for the -900 are currently being discussed.
This also applies to pricing, with only the -900s $215 million tag being disclosed.
It is unclear if aircraft weights will remain similar to those revealed at Farnborough, although Airbus today notes that it now plans to use lighter carbon fiber reinforced plastic paneled fuselage skins instead of composite barrels as initially planned. More details of this are expected to be released on 4 December.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
