IT was announced late last month that during July and August, Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) will take delivery of a considerable number of the 70 new aircraft ordered as part of the airline’s fleet renewal. Of these, a significant number will be Airbuses.
Airbus has had a checkered history with Saudi Arabia. A quarter of a century ago, it seemed that the European manufacturer was going to make serious inroads into Boeing’s dominance of the market when Saudia became the launch customer for the Airbus A300-600. It was delivered in 1984, but then things were quiet. By then the “Buy American” urge resurfaced; the orders thereafter were for Boeing 737s, 747s, MD-11s and MD 80/90s and, more recently, for Boeing 757s and 777s.
But in the past couple of years, with aging 737s needing to be phased out and fleet modernization imperative, Saudi eyes turned again to the Europeans. Signs of the change emerged when in early 2008 the French Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that Airbus had won a contract worth up to 400 million euros to supply the Royal Saudi Air Force with Airbus A330-based multi-role tanker transport aircraft.
Some have claimed the shift was a political move stemming from opposition to US policies in the Middle East; others see it purely as a commercial one — what Airbus had to offer fitted Saudi needs. The result was that in November 2007, Saudia signed an order for 22 Airbus wide-bodied, single-aisled A320s with an option for a further eight. Others quickly followed the deal, the first between Airbus and Saudia in 26 years. More recently Turkey’s Atlasjet acquired two Airbus 330-200 aircraft, operating them out of Jeddah for Saudia. The 330-200 has been phased into Saudia’s schedules over the past four months, operating on routes to Johannesburg, Kozhikode, Bangalore, Addis Ababa, Hyderabad and Tunis.
Saudia is not the only Saudi customer for Airbus. In May, independent operator Nas Air took delivery of a new Airbus A320 to join its existing fleet of six A320s and six Embraer ERJ-190s. Other A320s are in the queue. In November 2007, Nas signed a deal for 20 A320s.
In fact, it seems highly unlikely that politics ever had anything to do with shift toward the European manufacturer. Saudi business, whether private or public, always goes for quality first.
The fact that over the past 40 years Airbus has played a key role in the international air transport industry’s evolution has certainly played an important part in forming decisions as to what to go for. Improved manufacturing techniques; the development of global cooperation as part of sales (the first A320 rolled off its assembly line in China a couple of weeks ago and there are plans for an assembly plant in the US if it finally wins the US Air Force air refueling tanker battle with Boeing); and reducing aviation’s environmental impact. All have helped boost the attractiveness of Airbus to the aviation industry. Over 5,450 of the Airbus A320 family have been sold and over 3,200 delivered to some 200 operators worldwide, making it the world’s best selling commercial jetliner ever. Airbus likes to claim that its success is due to its ability to understand market and passenger expectations, and answer them with solutions that have become world standards.
It points out that in the 1970s, a time when others were concentrating on three— or four-engine aircraft, it entered the civil aviation scene by developing the first ever wide-body twin-engine, the A300B. With lower fuel consumption, reduced external noise and more efficient operating costs, as well as new landing technology, more comfort and containerized cargo, it immediately set new standards.
In the early 1980s, Airbus improved the A300B with a new concept of forward-facing crew cockpits — which reduced the crew to two pilots while improving safety.
In the late 1980s, Airbus was seen to break new ground again with the A320 — a more efficient aircraft and a more comfortable one, and introducing fly-by-wire flight controls and side-stick controllers into civil aviation. By the early 1990s, Airbus had introduced ultra-efficient aircraft for the medium— and long-range markets: The A330 and A340.
The recent introduction of Airbus’ flagship A380 marked another watershed in aviation development. Quite apart from the buzz in the travel industry about a new level of passenger comfort on board, the aircraft has raised the bar for environmental standards with its low fuel consumption and noise levels, as well as reduced CO2 and NOx emissions.
The A350 XWB will continue Airbus innovation, using new technologies and advanced composite materials such as CFRP (Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic).
Given that the Airbus is made in parts in various locations in Europe and then assembled in either Toulouse or Hamburg — itself something of a revolutionary change in aircraft manufacture — the company has had to develop a logistics system moving components. For this it has specially-designed aircraft, the Super Guppy and Beluga, as well as more conventional means — ships and road transport. It is a system that can be extended anywhere, whether to the US (as planned), to China (as has happened) or anywhere, although not to India at present; last month Airbus was quick to scotch rumors to that effect. But maybe one day, maybe the one of the GCC countries, given that they are such major customers.
Regional airlines like what they see in Airbus. They like its efficiency, its technology. They clearly dovetail into their own vision of the airline market. The competition has some catching up to do to displace Airbus in its newfound role as the region’s aircraft manufacturer of choice.
