Airbus has rescheduled plans to address perceived airline requirements for more-efficient single-aisle jetliners. To take advantage of emerging new “open rotor” engine technologies, it has extended beyond 2030 the time frame in which an all-new “A30X” replacement for the A320 might appear. Meanwhile, stimulated by strong initial market interest, Airbus hopes to introduce re-engined variants of the narrowbody, the A320neo (new engine option), six or more months earlier than previously suggested.
The European manufacturer has concluded that the business case for a clean-sheet A320-replacement cannot be made before 2030–and possibly not until 2035. That would give the established current design a potential manufacturing period of some 42 years, “the longest continuous production run in history,” claimed John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer (customers).
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