ON the eve of the 10th bi-annual Dubai Air Show a jumbo tussle has surfaced between one of the world’s biggest buyers of aircraft and the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer.
Emirates wants Boeing to build it a special version of its new 747-8 Intercontinental to meet the airline’s ultra-long-range requirements, which could also appeal to Qantas.
In Australia for this week’s Melbourne Cup, airline vice-chairman Maurice Flanagan – considered more the father of Emirates – told The Australian that Boeing was revisiting the original 747-8 Intercontinental design in order to meet the airline’s demands for Dubai-US west coast range capability.
However, Boeing says it will not build the longer range model, although Emirates has a track record of getting what it wants, with both Boeing and Airbus improving aircraft to meet the airline’s demanding requirements.
When Boeing elected to increase the original 747-8 Intercontinental (747-8I) – due to fly in 2009 – from the original and lighter 3.6m stretch (over the 747-400) to the 5.6m stretch of the 747-8 Freighter in November last year, it increased seating from 450 in Boeing’s standard three-class configuration to 467.
This was done after gains in the wind tunnel pushed the original 747-8I’s design range from 8000 nautical miles (14,815km) to 8300 nautical miles and that range was traded back for passengers.
The effect was to broaden the aircraft’s appeal to the underbelly of the 525-seat A380 market and improve its seat mile costs over the 365-seat 777-300ER, and the giant German airline Lufthansa signed up for 40 of the aircraft.
However, that doesn’t work for Emirates – and some other airlines – which wants the smaller stretch with the increased range gain, which would now be approximately 8400 nautical miles with a 50-tonne payload, after some more aerodynamic and weight improvements.
This week Boeing announced the completion of design trade studies and thus final configuration of the standard 747-8I.
However, it now appears to industry watches that the potential range capability of the 747-8I is emerging as a significant point of difference with the A380, and after losing the British Airways order to the A380 they say Boeing “should re-evaluate the original design to gain range advantages”.
Emirates and Boeing have been working for over a year on solutions to Emirates’ range requirements for the 747-8I, including lightening the galleys and seeking shorter polar routes over Russian air space.
The 747-8I with increased range may also appeal to Qantas, despite some of that airline’s executives dismissing the aircraft – some suggest prematurely – as “tarted-up old technology”.
However, the 747-8 since launched has outsold the A380, because Boeing has incorporated significant amounts of 777 and 787 technology into what is one of aviation’s unique designs.
The 747-8I features a 777/787 styled cockpit, 787 interior and engines, and the longer-range version being sought by Emirates could fly from Dallas to Sydney year-round, or even London to Perth.
Boeing is promising a dramatic performance improvement with the 747-8I over the 747-400. It will burn 16 per cent less fuel, be 30 per cent quieter and have 10 per cent lower trip costs, while costing the same to operate as the 747-400s in service with Qantas.
Key to the performance is the 747-8’s new wing, which while (internally) structurally the same is aerodynamically all new.
The 747-8 has raked wingtips borrowed from the 777-300ER/-200LR program, and double-slotted inboard flaps and single-slotted outboard flaps with fly-by-wire to the outboard ailerons.
The outboard wing has been re-lofted and the flap tracks and fairings redesigned, and wheels, tyres and brakes from the 777 complete the structural enhancements.
The passenger model will be able to carry up to 15 per cent more passengers and 21 per cent more cargo than the 747-400 and fly 1150 nautical miles (2127km) further to 8300 nautical miles (15,355km).
The interior has had a radical facelift, with a 777-styled sculptured interior ceiling which gives passengers 15 per cent more storage space, while those on the popular upper deck will get a 100 per cent increase in storage space.
Boeing is adding 777 windows to give a little more window area. The 747-8 will have LED mood lighting, lighter 787 interior components and 787 space-age toilets, and it will be e-enabled.
As well as the Lufthansa sale for the passenger version Boeing has sold four 747-8s as VIP transports for Middle East customers, and those buyers will be out in force at the Dubai Air Show starting on Sunday.
Emirates is expected to buy more 777-300ERs, and may buy the 300-seat Airbus A350 XWB and more A330s.
Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia is tipped to announce an order for up to 50 150-seat jets, although it is not clear if they are A320s or 737-800s.
“We may order between 34 and 50 of these jets this month,” Housam Raydan, Air Arabia’s spokesman, told Dubai’s Khaleej Times.
Gulf Air – now solely owned by Bahrain, and which traces its origins to the late 1940s – is also thought to be close to ordering more aircraft after a major restructure following the withdrawal of the State of Qatar in 2002, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2006, and Oman in July.
Each of these countries or states has now set up its own airline, and Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways are among the world’s fastest-growing airlines.
Qatar Airways, launched in 1993 and restructured in 1997, has a fleet of 60 aircraft, with 149 on order, while Etihad Airways, which launched flights in November 2003 – and now operates to Australia – has 34 aircraft with 27 on order.
The importance of the Dubai Air Show is underscored by the military hardware on display.
Boeing is displaying its F-15E Strike Eagle, F/A-18 Super Hornet and the 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft – ordered by the RAAF – in addition to an E-3 AWACS, B-1B Lancer, C-17 Globemaster III, which is in service with the RAAF and an AH-64A Apache helicopter gunship.
Airbus will fly its giant A380 to the show, where there will be 140 aircraft on display including the F117A Nighthawk stealth fighter/bomber.
Source: The Australian
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November 9, 2007 at 5:31 am