MAS: It’s a toss between Boeing and Airbus

MALAYSIA Airlines is shopping for either the Boeing 787 Dreamliner or the Airbus A350 to fill in the gap between its A330 and its A380 in terms of capacity and range, says its chief executive officer and managing director Tengku Datuk Azmil Zaharuddin.

He says MAS is also looking at the new Boeing 777 ER which could replace the ageing B747 Jumbo jets. 

Tengku Azmil Zaharuddin says MAS needs a good mix of long-range aircraft.

“We need a good mix of long-range aircraft to face the future challenges as well as business opportunities,” Azmil tells Malaysian journalists on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association AGM in Berlin recently.
As it stands now, the longer range aircraft in the carrier’s present fleet is ageing. “Our A330-300 has 250 seats while the B737-800 has182 and the A380 can seat more than 500 passengers. We have a gap there. We need an aircraft that flies about 300 to 350 people. The two new aircraft types have not come into service yet and we are studying the choices carefully.

“We have not set a deadline for us to decide but it would be part of our fleet expansion programme,” he adds.

The projected cost of the Airbus A350 when it enters service in 2013 is between US$208.7mil and US$269.6mil. The A350-800 is capable of flying 16,300km with sitting capacity of 253 in three-class configuration while the 300-seater A350-900 variant has a 13,900km range.

The Airbus A350 is a long-range, mid-size, wide-body aircraft with both fuselage and wing structures made mainly of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. The launch customer for the Airbus A350 is Qatar Airways which ordered 80 units.

Its rival is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which costs between US$141mil to US$200mil and seats between 210 and 330 passengers.

Boeing unveiled its first 787 in a roll-out ceremony in July 2007 and has become the fastest-selling wide-body airliner in history as of April this year; some 866 planes had been ordered by 56 customers.

The aircraft was originally scheduled to enter service in May 2008, but production had been delayed multiple times and the first aircraft is expected to be delivered to Qatar Airways by end-year.

The latest variant of the Boeing 777-300ER that MAS is eyeing to replace its Jumbo jets cost between US$257mil and US$286.5mil. The 777-300ER is a wider, longer and more powerful of the present 300 version. Its maximum range is 14,690km.

- thestar.com.my