Spain’s Air Europa to go for Boeing’s Dreamliner
It has finally been confirmed that Spain´s Air Europa has ordered 8 new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The aircraft are scheduled to be handed over to the Spanish airline in 2010 / 2012. By ordering Boeing’s last and most modern aircraft, Air Europa will be one of the first European airlines operating the airplane.
This purchase was confirmed a couple of weeks ago, on January 22nd 2008, by both Boeing and Air Europa. But things didn’t look the same two years ago. In fact, Airbus confirmed in 2006 that the Spanish airline had ordered 10 new A350-800´s, Airbus’s newest airplane (yes, newer than the A380) and counter part of Boeing’s Dreamliner. This same purchase was confirmed two years earlier, in 2004, by ‘El Mundo’, one of Spain’s leading news papers. It surely looked like Air Europa was keen on buying 10 A350´s.
What was it then that made the airline change its mind? Why did Air Europa decided that it was better to purchase 8 Boeing 787´s instead of 10 A350-800´s? That’s what we’re trying to deal with here. Both aircraft are very similar. They both belong to a new generation of environment friendly airplanes based on a more efficient fuel consumption rate and new composite materials. They’re both long range, mid sized airplanes with a wide body designed for long haul flights.
Excellent performance
María José Hidalgo, managing director of Air Europa, recently explained why the Spanish carrier had decided to buy the American planes. Keeping in mind that Air Europa is trying to compete directly with Iberia (Spain’s biggest air line) on it’s transatlantic routes to South America, Hidalgo explained that the Dreamliner was the best option the carrier had. It offered an excellent performance with a great fuel efficiency rate, an outstanding environmental performance and it offered an unprecedented comfort to the passengers.
Whereas the A350 is also an extremely modern aircraft designed to operate under new aeronautic concepts, it belongs to a different family of airplanes, it belongs to the Airbus family. Air Europa´s fleet is made up of different kinds of aircraft, but most of them are Boeing aircraft. The Spanish carrier’s fleet, as of January 2008, includes 33 Boeing 737-800´s, 4 767-300´s and 3 A330´s. Boeing is surely in good business with Air Europa, and this might be a good reason to explain why the order of 10 A350´s was finally cancelled.
Boeing vs. Airbus
With the 787 Dreamliner project, Boeing is probably trying to obtain a higher level of sales. Airbus’s twin engine A330 has proven itself to be a serious competitor to Boeing’s 767 and 777. It outsold the 767 by 24 to 9 in 2004. But once the Dreamliner project was in the air, a lot of airlines pushed Airbus to provide a competitor, since Boeing was claiming that it’s new airplane would be 20% more fuel-efficient. Although the European aircraft manufacturer initially claimed that Boeing’s Dreamliner didn’t pose a threat at all, it soon became clear that the A350 was it’s answer to the 787.
The truth is that Airbus has abandoned the A350 project due to severe critics that, funny enough, came from airlines which mainly operate Airbus aircraft. What they were saying was that the A350 was in fact an answer to Boeing’s 787. Such airlines were discouraged by the fact that Airbus’s design was way too similar to Boeing’s one. As a reaction to these claims, the European aircraft manufacturer cancelled it’s design and started working on the A350 XWB, which stands for ‘Extra Wide Body’, an airplane capable of fitting 9 passengers in a row in economy class.
All of this didn’t do any good to Airbus, and it might be another reason to explain why Air Europa finally ordered the Dreamliners.
Airbus-Boeing, Boeing-Airbus, the all-present dilemma among airplane lovers. Air Europa´s fleet will be greatly updated with the new 787´s, but it would’ve also been updated with the A350. Which one is better? I’ll leave that up to the readers.
