Airbus says A330 "more challenging", supply base stable (Reuters)

Translation: The A330 will run as the leading actor in Airbus' play but not after 2016. Then it will run in a supporting role for the A350. By then the talking points for the A330 sales will center on Capitalization value instead of operational value, as it's now sold. Capitalization sales value has a different set of taking points than the 787 or A350.

• Lower Purchase Price savings Buys More Jet Fuel for a long time.
• Lower Interest cost from lower purchase price buys additional fuel
• Ground Operations Cost is already sunk with A330 vs the new 787.
• Renewing A330 does not have a training penalty cost as with a 787.
• Total savings will compete with 787 over its service life

Sounds good for some Airbus airlines, but at some point the spread of the 787 is going to be a bad rash for Airbus.

The Western Australian Take:

Airbus says A330 "more challenging", supply base stable

Until now, the 20-year-old A330 has had a particularly strong run as sales benefited from three years of delays to the Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.

But that is winding down as Boeing catches up with 787 deliveries and Airbus prepares to bring out its own new A350.

A record rate at which Airbus is making the planes to take advantage of the market gap has also eaten into the backlog.

Confirming a timeline reported by Reuters earlier this year, Airbus said it faced growing challenges beyond 2016.

"The long-range programme (A330) presents no new challenges. However, managing the order book beyond 2016 becomes more challenging due to competition from A350 XWB and Boeing 787," the document said.

Industry sources warned in February the A330 faced a steep drop in deliveries beyond 2016 without new sales.