Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Fabrice Bregier, president and CEO of Airbus, has warned that the closing weeks of 2016 will see heavy demands on flight-testing and aircraft-delivery departments if the manufacturer is to meet projected deliveries. He openly concedes that a wait for upgraded engines and a lack of out-sourced parts and equipment have delayed, respectively, single-aisle A320neo and twin-aisle A350 aircraft output.

 


Airbus (the commercial division of Airbus Group) expects to deliver about 650 airliners this year, despite executives acknowledging a slow start to 2016 because of the delays. Indeed, executives had warned as early as January that A320neo deliveries would be “back-loaded” (that is, earmarked for late-year delivery).

 


Now, with a clearer picture of aircraft-production and engine-delivery realities, Airbus (Outdoor Exhibit) can see that the closing weeks of 2016 will prove particularly manic for the company, at a time when it also is seeking to increase overall final-assembly rates. Asked if manufacturing issues and production ramp-up plans mean that the company is becoming over-stretched, Bregier replied: “We need to make a judgment. I believe if we have the parts and engines, we will deliver the aircraft.

 


“We know that December will be awful for people in program management and flight-test.” He pointed out that recent record levels of new aircraft orders cannot be sustained, and that the European manufacturer must concentrate on managing deliveries. Both Bregier and chief operating officer (customers) John Leahy say they will be happy this year to match each aircraft leaving an Airbus delivery center (when final payments are made) with a balancing new order—a so-called “bill-to-book” ratio of one—after several years at higher ratios that have driven the order backlog to more than 6,700 aircraft.

 


Accordingly, delivering new aircraft is the company’s main preoccupation as the industry meets here at Farnborough International. At least one delayed A320neo was cancelled by Qatar Airways last month, even though Pratt &amp; Whitney (P&amp;W) is delivering its updated PW1130G-JM geared-turbofan (GTF) engines to Airbus.

 


By mid-June, at least 10 GTFs had been dispatched with the required upgrades incorporated in production, according to P&amp;W, with five more undergoing assembly. (Initial A320neo final-assembly began with 20 original-standard engines that had been subject to an overly time-consuming re-starting procedure that delayed scheduled airport departures.)

 


Ahead of the resumption of engine deliveries, as many as 25 single-aisle A320 Neos sans moteurs had been parked around the final-assembly buildings at the Toulouse factory (and more in Hamburg). In late May, chief operating officer Tom Williams said that once upgraded GTFs had been received by Airbus, then “very soon” the number of A320 “gliders” would reduce as Neo deliveries resumed.

 


Slow Supply Chain

 


Another challenge concerns the stretched A350-1000 variant, which Airbus expects to fly in September. Earlier this year it entered customization, a stage recognized by Williams as “the real cause of the ‘meltdown’ on the A380.” The manufacturer wants to deliver at least 50 A350s in 2016 but cabin-equipment supply problems have meant that only nine had been released to customers by June.

 


Also last month, China Airlines said that four aircraft scheduled for 2017 delivery from July onwards would arrive late, starting in September, while the first A350 for Thai Airways has slipped from July to August. Deliveries to Cathay Pacific Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines are understood to be behind schedule and South America’s largest carrier, Latam Airlines of Brazil, has said it is reviewing orders for the A350 and Boeing 787 because of reduced traffic.

 


Williams points out that apart from new-aircraft deliveries, other challenges include management of “traveling work”—outstanding tasks to complete sub-assemblies (for example) when they move to the next production stage, often to final assembly in another country—and maintaining relationships with customers, who now are “probably even more demanding than in the past.”

 


He is encouraged by the “very strong” order backlog and claimed a continuing increase in Airbus “market dominance,” especially in Asia and South America. He also said that the 6 percent annual growth in airline traffic is consistent with the company’s global market forecast. As Airbus works to increase production rates, Williams claimed its manufacturing is becoming “faster, smarter and more innovative,” with step changes in processing times along with new tooling, machines and skills management.

 


“The latest digital and automation technologies [make] significant differences to how we do things,” according to Williams. He said that A320 production still involves “a lot of paperwork” and provides further opportunities to become more “smart.”

 


One “big step” involves the introduction of robotics with some manual input, said Williams, who cited the introduction of such technology in a new structural assembly system to be used in a “pulse” line for A320 wing production at Broughton in the UK. New procedures mean that by the beginning of next year Airbus will be enjoying “huge” savings in costs while increasing production to 50 wing sets a month, Williams concluded. o

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

Airbus Approaches Delivery Crunch

Airbus faces heavy year-end delivery rate, warns Bregier.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Chad Trautvetter

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Added features include PlaneSync and LED exterior lighting

Daher Upgrades Kodiaks, Sees Higher Deliveries for 2025

Variant includes more than 25 new features and eight new paint schemes

Epic Unveils E1000 AX with Garmin Autothrottle and Autoland

Amy Wilder

News and issues concerning general aviation, specifically airplanes and helicopters powered by piston and alternative engines (i.e., non-turbine powered aircraft). Subjects include aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

2016 Farnborough Airshow

More In Aircraft

Daher Upgrades Kodiaks, Sees Higher Deliveries for 2025

Added features include PlaneSync and LED exterior lighting

Epic Unveils E1000 AX with Garmin Autothrottle and Autoland

Variant includes more than 25 new features and eight new paint schemes

Foundation Aims for First Learjet Polar Circumnavigation

Flight is a fundraiser to restore Learjet 23-003

ACJneo Type Certificate Validated in China

Local registration opens up more airports and offers tax benefits

Loch Lomond Acquires Two ‘No Emission’ Seaplanes

‘Blend of tradition and innovation’

Textron Aviation’s Denali To Mark Sun ‘n Fun Expo Debut

Clean-sheet, single turboprop aircraft is progressing toward 2026 certification

Bombardier Sells Two Challenger 650s for Australian ISR

Australia surveillance aims for Bombardier boost

AMSL Prepares to Test Hydrogen-powered Vertiia eVTOL Aircraft

Australian eVTOL start-up’s second full-scale prototype could fly this year

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN