RE: airbus a330 500

Hi there,

A330-500 is a proposed replacement for A 300-600. Airlines like Lufthansa and Hapag Lloyd have been urging Airbus to caome up with a successor to the A300/310 series for quite some time. AI was sluggish to respond but has now come up with a solution which sees the A330-200 being shortened by 4 frames forward and 4 frames aft of the wing. MTOW is 228t and range with 222 pax in three class layout 7000nm. This variant (in combination with the -200) would be a real competitor to the 767. Actually its not quite what LH is looking for, because they need an a/c for their highly frequented European routes, so they do not need the range and the weight. That`s why there is a second version with a MTOW of 195t and a range of 4550nm which would seat 253. If LH is satisfied with that remains to be seen. Next month they are going to employ a 757-300 on some of their routes to test its suitability on the line and because of over-capacity at Condor.
Airbus however doesn`t want to produce an a/c just for one customer, they have to keep the whole market in mind.
There hasn`t been any decision to launch it, it`s just a proposal, but a very interesting one, I believe.