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Can the A350 compete with Boeing's new baby?
29 March 2005
The Boeing 787 and the recently-launched Airbus A350 are very closely matched. AE looks at how the rivals compare.
The Boeing 787 and the recently-launched Airbus A350 are very closely matched. AE looks at how the rivals compare.
Boeing is spending $10 billion developing the 787. Airbus says it needs just $2.5 billion to launch the A350. So you would be forgiven for thinking that the 787 will clearly be a far better aircraft. You would be wrong. If the figures that manufacturers are publishing are correct, the 787 will be more efficient than the A350. But it will not be that much more efficient.
Aircraft Economics' analysis shows that, if all the data is correct, the 787's cost per trip will be 13% lower than that of the A330-200. The A350-800 is between 4% and 5% cheaper than the A330-200. This means that the 787 is still close to 10% cheaper per trip than the A350-800, but the A350-800's larger passenger capacity means that the two aircraft are very closely matched...
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