Airbus Sees Market for 4,000 A320neos

In confirming its plans to upgrade the A320 family with two new engine offerings – from CFM International and Pratt & Whitney – Airbus says it will not just reduce fuel burn, but also reduce NOx emissions, lower noise, and add up to 500 naut. mi. new range on the A320neo (new engine option) when it enters service in 2016. Airbus says it sees a market potential for 4,000 NEO-type aircraft over the next 15 years, which would bring the total orders for A320 family aircraft above 10,000 units since the program was launched on a business case of around 600 units. Still, some analysts have questioned the need for the move. Boeing is still assessing what it will do with its 737, but has been less eager to go the reenginging route and suggested it may skip the step to offer an all-new aircraft toward the end of the decade. The Pratt engine offering is built around the PW1100G and CFM International is offering a version of its Leap-X. One of the reasons for Airbus to pursue an upgrade now is to ward off emerging competition from the Bombardier CSeries and Comac C919 and because company officials felt the engine offering for a brand new product would not mature until well into the next decade, opening a window for the A320neo. Airbus for months has said it saw the business case for the program, but was concerned it might not have the engineering wherewithal to pull it off and keep other projects on track. “Finding the necessary resources for the A320neo wasn’t exactly a walk in the park,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders says in launching the program. “The enabler was to devise a stringent phasing of critical engineering assets throughout our various development programs and to optimize the management and organization of all our programs and R&T projects. Our international engineering centers, suppliers and partners play a big role in this.” The EADS board okayed the move to offer the aircraft on Nov. 30. Airbus says the A320neo will cut fuel burn around 15% (including through the savings offered by winglet additions already in the pipeline), as well as cut NOx more than 10% and increase range 500 naut. mi. or increase payload. Operating costs and noise also are promised to come down. The weakest member of the A320 family, the A318, is excluded from the NEO program, but the engine option is being offered for A321, A320 and A319. Airbus promises the move “will require limited modifications, primarily to the wing and pylon areas” and that there will be “over 95% airframe commonality with the standard A320 Family.” The latter is key to attract airlines already customers for the baseline A320. Airbus was hoping to offer one engine through International Aero Engines, the joint venture of Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, MTU, and Japanese Aero Engines now offering the V2500, but Rolls and Pratt couldn’t decide on a technical baseline to offer, effectively signaling the end of IAE for new engines and relegating the business to in-service support for the large installed base. Rival CFM International president and CEO Eric Bachelet notes that ‘this is a natural extension of the long and very successful relationship we have enjoyed with Airbus since the inception of the A320 Family program in the early 1980s. CFM pledges its full support to the A320neo’s development and certification and to its successful entry into commercial service.” The Airbus Leap-X, which does not yet have its own designation, would cover roughly the same power range as the CFM56-5, which is around 22,000-34,000 lb. of thrust. The joint venture of General Electric and Safran’s Snecma unit is currently building up its eCore Demonstrator 2 for testing in mid-2011. It features a 10-stage high-pressure compressor and two-stage high-pressure turbine, along with the lean burn, low emissions TAPS combustor. A third core configuration is to run in 2012, just prior to the first full LEAP-X1C engine test in early 2013. The Leap-X also is to power the Comac C919. Furthermore, CFM notes it will soon test the advanced 3-D Woven Resin Transfer Molding fan that is a part of Leap-X. That is to begin in the first quarter of 2011.