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Thursday, October 19, 2017

Can 6,550 Miles and 287 Seats Do It For A-330 NEO Customers?

A big question for Airbus customers looms large for those who have already ordered 206 A-330-900 NEO's. The NEO is an under cut for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as the NEO offers a cheaper per unit buy price. The program itself is teetering at this time as the many financial types weigh-in if selling  the A330-NEO can make money. 

Going forward, Airbus hopes to make money with this program but only 212 orders seem a bit tepid for those aspirations.

One of its major NEO customers who ordered 66 of the A330-900 NEO is taking a reality check on that order when it announced it was talking with Boeing about its Dreamliner suggesting a dumping of its order. When quickly doing the math, a cancellation this late in its developmental process would be a major blow to the NEO program and leave it with only 146 A330-900 "firmed" orders. The question then becomes why build it if after these last five years there are only 146 booked orders?

The Airbus A330-900 NEO is fighting for its life with the Air Asia renegotiation and mentioning Boeing in its latest re-think. Hawaiian Airline had ordered some (6) of its A-330-800 NEO, and is now worried that so few ordered for this type it will be a no show production and delivery for the Airline. It also is in talks with the Boeing 787 people. Hence, only 212 A-330 NEO's for both types have been ordered. 

Today is a victory for Airbus that it lifted off on its first flight during 3 hours of flight testing and landed successfully. Much fanfare was made in the press for something that may be doomed if more Airbus orders are not acquired for the A-330 NEO and cancellations from both Air Asia and Hawaii Airlines occur.

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