Airbus Has Made A Very Small Mistake...

[Music] airbus has a little bit of a problem emphasis on little it now has two aircraft on its books that occupy the same size category and a future in-demand project that threatens to cannibalize the very cash cow a320 that put them on the map in the first place what are these aircraft and what can be done about it let's explore the tricky airbus small plane problem thanks so much for clicking on this video today if you like what you see don't forget to comment like and subscribe airbus makes many different planes both big and small however one side of their product line is starting to get a little bit too heavy and that's all thanks to over-investment in a certain category to explain we need to dive straight back into the history books after airbus launched the a300 they looked at developing a new smaller aircraft for travel within europe and for airlines in north america called the airbus a320 airlines were requesting a smaller plane from airbus with greater range that they could use for small hops between cities like london to paris or singapore to hong kong an airbus partnered up with singapore and china to develop the new type this new aircraft codenamed the ae31x would fly 125 passengers in a 2-3 configuration to a range of 2000 nautical miles unfortunately the deal fell through and airbus decided to go it alone they shrunk the a320 airframe to fit the market demand without doing a new clean sheet design the two models that they created were the a318 and the a319 and they would be able to fly 136 passengers to a bigger range of around three and a half thousand nautical miles airbus would sell a few of these aircraft notably to air france who would fall in love with the a318 baby bus flash forward to modern times to the arrival of canadian airframe maker bombardier with gusto this canadian firm got to work building a new type of aircraft called the cs-300 a modern 100-seater airplane to rival brazil's embraer and fill an important market niche left abandoned by the only other north american civil plane maker boeing boeing didn't take this move well and despite not being in the market category themselves since the early boeing 737s they still moved to block the sale of the new plane in the united states many at the time believed that this was due to delta ordering 100 of the new cs 300 aircraft instead of the boeing 737 max this move was a major blow to the canadian firm who seemingly was shut out of the entire us market but there was one way for bombardier to get its cs 300 and its smaller version the cs 100 back into the good old usa if the aircraft was technically built within america it would be considered a domestic product and no longer have to pay high tax tariffs so if not boeing then the only other firm with sites to build planes would be airbus and their alabama finishing plant the aircraft would be primarily built in canada before moving down to mobile to complete production and thus through the loophole enter the united states market but this came at a huge cost with airbus acquiring a majority share in the cs program and renaming rights calling the new plane the airbus a220 series this plane would be revolutionary compared to the airbus a320 series it would travel just as far and be more fuel efficient although it wouldn't carry as many passengers there are two versions of the a220 the original a220 300 and its shrink the airbus a220 100. looking at the larger a220 300 it has a range of 3400 nautical miles and can carry up to 150 passengers in its most dense configuration while the airbus a318 baby bus and airbus 319 can fly up to around three and a half thousand nautical miles and a roughly over 150 passengers while in earlier times that last load factor might have been a deal breaker for some airlines in the age of 2020 in the aviation crisis airlines have been more than ever asking for efficiency over passengers a small plane that can go further is easier to fill up and make profitable than a lumbering aircraft essentially the very same reason why an aircraft like the boeing 787 and airbus a350 are favored over the a380 and boeing 747. but this is where the problem gets more interesting these two aircraft cater to the same range and passenger market and left airbus in a situation where the promotion of either will cannibalize the sails of the other after all rival boeing doesn't compete in the market so apart from other small plane maker breyer airbus is only stealing customers from themselves and clearly looking at the sales numbers airlines that prefer the newer a220 with all the advantages of newer engines modern cabin designs and better fuel economy so much so that airlines have asked for a stretched version of the original a220-300 to replace their existing airbus a320 fleets a major buyer of the small a318 baby bus air france has even mentioned the a220 500 stretch in a recent investor meeting as part of its fleet modernization strategy this stretch version would cover the inherent floor of fewer seats on the airbus a2200 model and pushed the seats up to a maximum of 170 in a dense configuration with also likely an increased range to boot it would mean that the a2200 series would now not only bite into the a318 and a319 but the a320 series as well airbus is already committed to a new engine option of both the a319 a320 and a321 so it's an investment that it doesn't want to see go to waste airbus might not be able to stand in the way of market demand with the likes of not only air france but air baltic and delta keen to pick up the stretch version of the aircraft and according to a very recent news air france plans to make a move to buy the dash 500 stretch as soon as it can or it might swing right over and buy the boeing 737 max instead if airbus decides to make a larger version of the a220 that could make sense of course now that the max is flying again we could always look at that and of course there is always the a321 the lr and xor but perhaps it's not so bad to have two versions for customers to choose from after all the a320 order backlog is so huge that many airlines have ordered the a320 neo still have many years to wait before they see their aircraft in the sky the a220 series avoids that problem by being of a different production line with its own supply chain that they could offer it as an alternative to airlines who don't want to wait for the a320 after all it's better to have money in the hand than a potential future sale that may never come to fruition lastly there is a matter of the third and very unknown project called the airbus nsr or new short range project this aircraft is supposed to be in development to replace the a320 family and usher in a new era of aircraft by 2030 but with the a220s nipping at the heels of the small plane market it is unlikely that airbus is keen to open the third product line thanks so much for watching today's video if you enjoyed this perspective on the airbus small plane problem then 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Channel: Found And Explained

Views: 511,265

Keywords: a220, a220-100, a220-300, a220-500, a220 stretch, air france a220, airbus a320, airbus a220, a220 vs a320, a318 vs a220, a319 vs a220, a320neo vs a220-500, airbus small plane, boeing small plane, embraer ejet, airbus mistake, airbus vs boeing, bombardier, cs300, canada planes, delta a220, a220 delta, delta regional jet, future planes, simple flying, too many planes, 3d plane animation, plane animation, smallest plane, boeing plane, airbus plane, what is the smallest plane

Id: 02rkIx9Wi80

Length: 8min 27sec (507 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020