Airbus' versatile A330 aircraft family has crossed the 1500 firm order milestone, making it one of successful widebody jetliner.
The orderbook now stands at 1501, with the recent order for four A330-200 Freighters from Turkish Airlines and 25 A330-900neo from Air Lease Corporation.
The A330 airliner was introduced in 1994 and the family now has expanded to include Freighter, VIP, and Military Transport/Tanker variants. Airbus is continuing its A330 development with numerous on-going product enhancements entering service in the coming years.
Airbus spends approximately 150 million euros each year on enhancements and incremental improvements for the A330 family.
These enhancements include the more capable 242 tonne take-off-weight variant (available for both the A330-200 and the A330-300), the A330 optimised for regional and domestic routes and the A330neo.
The A330 with the increased takeoff weight of 242 tonnes upgrade is first being applied to the A330-300 – with service entry planned from mid-2015, and subsequently to the A330-200 (in-service from early 2016), allowing operators to carry additional payload on longer missions.
Maiden flight of the variant was acheived in last January. In the following March, Airbus rolled out the 242 tonne A330 in Delta Airline livery after completing the flight tests.
In 2013, Airbus announced the lower weight A330 Regional variant, optimised for use on domestic and regional routes in high growth markets – such as China and Asia – with concentrated traffic flows and sized to accommodate up to approximately 400 passengers.
The new engine option (neo) variants, the A330-800neo and A330-900neo launched in July 2014offers a 14 percent reduced fuel consumption per seat compared with today’s A330 and is powered by the new Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines, making them the most cost efficient, medium range widebody aircraft for the future on the market.
Planned for first deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2017, the A330neo will allow a range increase of around 400 nautical miles while carrying more payload.
Currently produced at 10 per month, Airbus has announced it decision to reduce the production rate to 9 per month by end 2015 and further to six a month from Q1 2016 as it transitions to the neo variant .
With over 1100 A330 family aircraft flying with airlines serving more than 400 airports worldwide, an A330 takes off or lands every 20 seconds.
With flight time ranging from 30 minutes up to 15 hours, the A330 offers the most efficient option spanning 200-440 seats and claims an average dispatch reliability above 99 per cent.
