Airbus Plans To Compete With Boeing's 777-9

The European air plane maker is not standing behind its American rival

In the business, the most common notion is –the bigger the better. In the line of it Boeing introduced its new and more powerful 777-9. The proposed jet will be the largest after qualifying to be 406-seaterwith popular twin-engine and a wider body. However, the European rival, Airbus, is not falling behind its American counterpart. Reportedly, the European plane maker is working on its 400-seat twin engine jetliner. The move is likely to create a dynamic competition between the two entities to create the world’s biggest and largest twin-engine commercial jet.

According to the Airbus sales representative who gave the statement to the Reuters, the Toulouse, France headquartered company is searching for an airliner support for new variant of A350. The company’s A350 had an extended seating capacity, wider body and better seat mile economics than the rival’s 777-9. American based Boeing has already been successful with its 777-9 who, since 2013, has taken into its credit more than 250 orders from airlines like Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways.

For the time being, the anticipated jet has been named the A350-8000. This new jet is likely to cater to the need of those airlines which are seeking the high-capacity and long range aircraft but are not on the watch for high-performance characteristics –which are generally embedded in 777-9 make it highly popular among Middle Eastern airlines. The current Airbus jet A350 has seating capacity of 360 passengers at most. Therefore, through the higher capacity twin jet, the European plane maker can efficiently compete in the market and attract the customers which are searching for high-capacity jets without jumping up on Airbus’s four-engine, double-decker A380—currently the world’s largest passenger airliner.

However, turning the concept of a larger airliner into reality is very difficult. It’s not as simple as attaching some additional seats or extending the fuselage. On the basis of the assumption that the Airbus finds significant airline support which could push its proposed plan of A350-8000 even then it ought to persuade the engine maker Rolls-Royce to come up with a new derivative of the engine slated for the A350-1000, currently the largest of the A350 variants. In the second half of 2016, the very first flight of the A350-1000 is scheduled.

Coming up with a new derivative isn’t convenient for even Rolls-Royce who may not have the bandwidth or budget to do so. Moreover, the proposed development is exorbitantly expensive—almost, according to an estimation by unnamed analyst, half-a-billion dollars expensive. Nevertheless, the exorbitant investment will reap good benefits in the future. Although, Airbus’s gigantic A380 orders have been a little on the softer side than what the company had initially expected however the

But that investment could be worth it in the long-term. While orders for Airbus’s massive A380 have been far softer than the company anticipated, the high-capacity, twin-engine jets market has been valued to have worth of around $1.9 trillion over the next two decades.

In July, at the Farnborough International Air Show outside of London, the France based Airbus is scheduled to give in more details and update about the future of its highly anticipated A350-8000s jet line.