Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi Government owned airline, has cancelled six Airbus A350-1000 of its original order of 25 aircraft, but retained the option to buy wide body jets.
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An Etihad Airways spokesman told Bloomberg it has a great deal of confidence in the A350 XWB programme and the company is delighted to have been able to retain attractive delivery positions for the (A350) 1000 derivative.
Confirming the cancellation of the order, a spokesman from Airbus said Etihad has cancelled some planes and said it is linked to Etihad Airways’ fleet requirements which evolve over time and can change.
Following the cancellation, Etihad Airways has options to buy 25 more aircraft from Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space.
The A350-1000 aircraft is being built as part of the A350 XWB programme and it will be a longest aircraft in the family, featuring a twin-engine. Flightglobal cited an Etihad source saying the carrier was not ‘content’ with changes to the aircraft.
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By GlobalDataAirbus had previously revealed a plan to increase the size and power of the A350-1000 aircraft, leading to a delay in the launch of aircraft to 2017 from the earlier scheduled launch in 2015.
Airbus had secured orders for only ten A250-1000 aircraft in 2011, whereas cancellation of 41 left the type in negative net figures for 2011.
Cancellation of a single A350-800 had reduced the A350 order backlog to 555 aircraft, comprising 118 800s, 368 900s and 19 1000s.
The planemaker had twice delayed the introduction of the first A350-900 which is a smaller version and is now to operate from the first half of 2014 instead of July 2013.
Image: The twin-engine jetliner A350-1000 is considered to be the longest aircraft in the A350 XWB family. Photo: Airbus.
