European airliner maker Airbus argues that its new-generation A350-900 twin-aisle airliner would be the best option for South African Airways (SAA) wide-body fleet renewal programme. The national carrier wants to replace its current fleet of four-engine Airbus A340s with more economical twin engine aircraft. (SAA now has nine A340-600s, eight A340-300s and one A340-200. The company has already acquired new Airbus A330 twin-aisle aircraft; the A350s would complement these.)

Airbus senior marketing analyst Kwame Bekoe on Tueday pointed out at a media briefing at company head office in Toulouse, France, that typical operating costs for a 250-seat airliner were dominated by fuel (accounting for 39% of total costs), ownership or leasing costs (34%) and maintenance (7%). On major intercontinental routes, he reported that, in comparison to the A340-600, the A350-900 would cut fuel burn by up to 37%, maintenance costs by up to 41%, and unit costs (costs to operate each seat kilometre offered by an airline) by about 11%.

The calculation of these figures took into account the hot-and-high nature of Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport. The routes considered were Johannesburg to and from New York, London, Frankfurt, Beijing, Sao Paulo and Perth.

The A350-900 can reach key centres in all the other Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries without having to stop and refuel. This includes Beijing and Moscow. It can also reach New York and Sydney without refuelling. In comparison, Bekoe affirmed that the Boeing 787 cannot fly nonstop from Johannesburg to Beijing or from Johannesburg to New York.

In addition, the Airbus family-of-aircraft approach means that, in future, SAA could also acquire the larger A350-1000, without any significant increase in operating costs. As with existing Airbus families, a pilot needs only one type of rating to fly all variants of the aircraft. Pretty much the same thing applies to the maintenance personnel.

Currently, two A350-900 flight test aircraft are flying. At the end of September, 725 A350s were on order from 37 customers.

Keith Campbell is visiting Airbus in Toulouse as a guest of the company.