Middle East & North Africa to invest $124 billion in airliners

With the world's most modern airliner family, which includes the new A350 and A380 21st Century flagships, Airbus expects to win at least half of this business.

The more than 1,000 aircraft comprise 630 for growth, plus 385 to replace aircraft currently in service that are growing old. They comprise 485 single-aisle aircraft for which Airbus is competing with its A320 Family, 440 small and intermediate-size widebodies for which it offers its A330, A340 and A350 families, and 90 very large aircraft for which it is proposes its A380 family.

Airbus Regional Press Manager David Velipullai, said: "The company forecast predicts that the market in the Middle East will grow 7.1 per cent higher than the worldwide average of 5.3 per cent and in North Africa the growth will be 4.5 per cent. Airbus has won more than half the total airliner orders worldwide in five of the last six years. It will also deliver over half the newly built airliners this year, the third time in a row that it has done so. It is even more successful in the Middle East and North Africa, where it consistently wins about 60 per cent of new orders."

The Middle East and North Africa is an important region for Airbus, with most of the major carriers in it having made Airbus aircraft the cornerstone of their fleet modernisations. Airlines need a variety of aircraft sizes and ranges to suit the different routes that they fly and, with the largest and newest airliner family, Airbus has the best aircraft to satisfy every airline need.

Airbus is also unique in offering unmatched cockpit commonality across the entire range of passenger aircraft that it produces today. Depending on the mix of aircraft in an airline's fleet, this can be worth an annual saving of up to a million dollars an aircraft - as well as enhancing flight-crew productivity and operational flexibility.

Airbus' newest aircraft are the medium-size ultra-long range A350, which is aimed at point-to-point services, and the double-deck A380, for hub-to-hub flights.

The Airbus A350-800 flies 30 more passengers 300 nm/555 km further and eight per cent more economically than its newest competitor. Comprising over 60 per cent advanced weight-saving materials, it has the latest fuel-saving aerodynamic design, lower maintenance costs and a wider passenger-pleasing cabin with larger windows. Qatar Airways has already chosen the A350, and other carriers are evaluating it.

Airbus' A380 is 15-20 per cent more economical per seat than today's largest aircraft, gives passengers wider seats and a 50 per cent bigger cabin, and is designed to use existing airports. Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have already ordered it. The Airbus A380 is also environmentally friendly, making less than half the noise of today's largest airliner and generating fewer emissions.