Airbus' A330 long-range family reaches 600 sales

[Andrew Ong 1]

Here's a news release from Airbus about the A330:

 

Airbus' A330 long-range family reaches 600 sales

24 November 2006

 

The A330 has reached the milestone of over 600 firm orders. This shows a strong market endorsement of Airbus’ environmentally friendly, long-range twin-engine in production aircraft which is leader in the medium to extended range category. The milestone was reached with the firm order, previously announced, for six A330-200s by TAM, Airbus’ largest customer in Latin America.

 

The A330-300 is the world’s lowest operating cost per seat aircraft in its segment, typically accommodating 335 passengers in two classes for regional operations or 295 travellers in three classes on long-haul routes of up to10,500km/5,650nm. Today, the A330-300 is the reference for airlines serving intra-Asia routes.

 

The smaller capacity A330-200 has a range of 12,500km/6,750nm with 253 passengers in a comfort three-class seating arrangement. The A330-200 can easily serve non-stop destinations from Latin America to North America and Europe, from Asia to major US West Coast as well as operating economically on medium ranges.

 

Thanks to the A330’s true widebody fuselage, the cabin is optimised for both flexibility and comfort, enabling airlines to offer all passengers the highest levels of comfort of any aircraft in its class. The A330 main deck volume is echoed in the lower deck, which allows airlines to carry more revenue-generating cargo consolidated on pallets and containers loaded side-by-side, something which is not possible with existing competition in this category. This feature has, for example, enabled some operators to profitably fly regional overnight freight-only services with the A330 after a full day’s passenger service.

 

The A330 Family continues to evolve. Its latest member, the new A330-200F is the only modern solution for the mid-size freighter market. It is projected to enter service at the end of 2009. The newest Airbus freighter will offer operators between 64 tonnes and 69 tonnes payload, representing 30 per cent more volume than any freighter in its class. Another benefit the A330-200F brings to operators is a new dual weight capability, enabling them to grow their business by opening up or extending the cargo routes they currently operate. Typical range with a 64 tonne payload is 7,400km/4,000nm. This new aircraft meets the current and future noise and emissions regulations and will be an ideal solution for operators looking to replace their older mid-sized freighters currently in-service and modernise their fleet.

 

Since first delivery in 1993, the A330 Family has accumulated some eight million flight hours with 65 operators. With almost 100 orders and commitments and 63 deliveries of A330 Family aircraft over the last twelve months, the popular Airbus twin-engine long-range family continues to enjoy unabated success. Ten new A330 Family operators were signed up over this period, underlining the aircraft as the super-efficient favourite of airlines looking to increase their capacity and develop their networks.

 

[Rozhan 0]

I like the A330s. The landings are amazingly smooth on all occasions I have flown on it. Could it be the design of the landing gear? I took videos of the A330 landing and notice that it somehow tiptoes on the runway, become slightly airborne again, before making the final touchdown with tyres smoking. But always almost unfelt touchdowns despite it being a heavy widebody.

Edited November 24, 2006 by Rozhan

[Kevin Teh 0]

I like the A330s. The landings are amazingly smooth on all occasions I have flown on it. Could it be the design of the landing gear? I took videos of the A330 landing and notice that it somehow tiptoes on the runway, become slightly airborne again, before making the final touchdown with tyres smoking. But always almost unfelt touchdowns despite it being a heavy widebody.

 

i guess the weather during landing play an important role as well. My flight couple of days ago from KUL to TPE had a bumpy landing (A330) due to the windy and rainy weather. Or maybe it is just one of the case....

 

regarding the topic, Airbus seems doing well with their existing projects like the narrow-body A320s and now the wide-body midium capacity A330s. But their large capacity long haul aircraft like the A340s isnt doing good, and the Extra Large long haul A380s lacking of orders.

[Darren Liew 0]

i guess the weather during landing play an important role as well. My flight couple of days ago from KUL to TPE had a bumpy landing (A330) due to the windy and rainy weather. Or maybe it is just one of the case....

 

regarding the topic, Airbus seems doing well with their existing projects like the narrow-body A320s and now the wide-body midium capacity A330s. But their large capacity long haul aircraft like the A340s isnt doing good, and the Extra Large long haul A380s lacking of orders.

 

The so called smooth landing can also be attributed to the design of the A330`s landing gear. Just look at their main wheel design. They tilt backwards and kinda tip toes on landing before the entire weight of the plane is placed on it. Their competitor or rather the plane that it replaced about 10 years ago the B767`s main gear tilt forward. So when you land the B767 will feel that it lands much harder than the A330! My mother thought that the Australian Airlines B767 had crashed when she flew in from Singapore to Bali about 5 months ago cuz the landing was so hard! Gave her a shock! My guess was that for those conditions that you had in Taipei can you imagine that landing done on a B767? I dread to think of it!

 

Well done to Airbus and their A330 and I really hope that Qatar`s experience on the A340-600HGW is really good and other airlines jump on this band wagon as well!

 

 

Best regards,

Darren Liew

Edited November 25, 2006 by Darren Liew