Page 24 - AAA JULY-AUGUST 2012 Online Magazine

FEATURE NARROW-BODY
ABOVE China is soon to
enter the narrow-body
market with the locally
built COMAC C919
Projections by Boeing show two key trends (ABOVE) - a massive jump in single-aisle, narrow-body jet numbers, along with an
equivalent surge in Asian uptake. The key driver (ABOVE, RIGHT) is the booming LCC market which has quadrupled in six years.
24 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS JULY / AUGUST 2012
Slicing the pie
What is clear is that it’s not just airbus and
Boeing who see the potential of the new
narrow-body market – the newcomers
want a slice of the pie too. and many
have deep pockets. Boeing commercial
airplanes’ president Jim albaugh has
said that coMac is the main threat to the
Boeing-airbus duopoly. “competition is
a great thing. airbus coming along made
Boeing a better company. coMac will
make both Boeing and airbus better at
what we do,” he said. albaugh assumes
coMac will initially focus on domestic
markets, but that eventually it will have a
product that is perfectly able to compete
with Boeing and airbus.
analysts believe china will succeed in
the narrow-body market as it has a huge
body type expected to enter the market domestic market, which will guarantee
in 2016. airlines from china and two plenty of orders for a long time to come. it
lessors have already ordered the aircraft. has also been successfully making bodies
china certainly has the ability to produce and wings for other aircraft builders. and
planes more cheaply, though airlines there is no doubt there is room. airbus and
know the purchase price is only one part Boeing estimate a total of about 13,000
of owning an aircraft. there’s also 20 narrow-body aircraft built over the next
years of after-market support to consider. 20 years. that’s about 700 per year – only
Meanwhile, russia’s irkut MS-21 is also around 85% of what the producers expect
looking for orders. it boasts cutting-edge to supply next year. So there will be a dip
construction including a composite wing in orders. and there will be a significant
designed by Sukhoi, fly-by-wire flight expansion in the number of narrow-body
controls, advanced avionic systems, and is builders. Which will either bring mergers,
powered by the Pratt & Whitney PW1000g collapses, or dramatic price drops. or
geared turbofan, but again after-sales maybe all three. it won’t be a dull decade
support planning is a little hazy. or two, that’s for sure.
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