Airbus’ broken dream

While Airbus’ hub-and-spoke vision for the aviation industry appears to be little more than a broken dream, the manufacturer has adapted to market forces and moved to mirror Boeing’s smaller more efficient aircraft.

In response to the Dreamliner, Airbus has developed the A350-XWB (extra wide-body), with the aircraft coming into service for the first time with Qatar in January 2015.

The European manufacturer’s ultra-longrange variant of the A350 is now being operated by Singapore Airlines on the world’s longest non-stop commercial route between Singapore and Newark, a whopping 18 hours 30 minutes, while the airline’s 17-hour 50-minute Singapore-los Angeles services are flown using A350-900 aircraft. As of February this year, Airbus had received more than 900 orders for A350 planes from 51 clients, with approximately 320 planes delivered to date.