Air France-KLM announced on Monday September 25 that it would place a “major order” for fifty long-haul Airbus A350 aircraft in order to “continue the renewal and rationalization of its fleet”.
This order, accompanied by acquisition rights for forty additional aircraft, represents more than 16 billion dollars (15.1 billion euros) at the list price, never applied due to the discounts granted. Deliveries will take place between 2026 and 2030.
It aims to replace the thirty-three Boeing 777-200s and twenty-six older generation A330s of the two companies. It will concern both A350-900s and A350-1000s, the distribution of which has not been finalized.
“This will be a scalable order, offering the group the flexibility to allocate the devices to its different companies according to market dynamics and the local regulatory framework,” specifies the Franco-Dutch group in a press release.
These aircraft, capable of carrying up to 410 passengers over 16,000 kilometers depending on the version, allow a 25% reduction in fuel consumption compared to previous generation aircraft and a 40% reduction in their noise footprint.
The A350 “will play a key role in achieving our ambitious decarbonization targets, including achieving a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions per passenger per kilometer by 2030,” compared to 2019, according to the group’s general manager, Ben Smith, quoted in the press release.
The war in Ukraine weighed on the choice of devices
Air France-KLM believes that the ban on Russian airspace since the start of the war in Ukraine will last. This had a role in the selection of the A350 at the expense of the Boeing 787, of which the group operates twenty-five examples, confided Ben Smith during a conference call.
“The Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 have excellent range but are smaller; the A350-900 is the same size as the 787-10 but it has the same range as the 787-9,” he explained, saying he “needs the biggest planes” available.
As for the Boeing 777X, which has yet to be certified, “there is no slot available for at least five or six years” but the aircraft will be a “candidate” for replacing the Boeing 777-300 at the end of the decade, said Ben Smith.
Air France already operates twenty-two A350-900s and has yet to receive nineteen, while KLM has thirty-three Boeing 787s as the latest generation aircraft. The Franco-Dutch group also has eight A350s in its future freighter version on order. With 99 aircraft eventually, Air France-KLM will be the first A350 operator in the world, said the group’s general director.
In a press release, Airbus said it was “extremely grateful to the Air France-KLM group for the trust it continues to place in it”, judging that it was “an important step in [their] partnership long-standing.” The European aircraft manufacturer and the Franco-Dutch company announced in early September their intention to create a joint venture intended for the maintenance of A350 parts.
Record profitability in the second quarter
Faced with the need to reduce their environmental footprint, to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 promised by the sector, and with global air traffic expected to double by this time, airlines are engaged in a vast movement to modernize their fleet.
To ensure their future growth, they are striving to reserve available delivery slots as soon as possible with aircraft manufacturers, engaged in ramping up their production after the plunge due to the health crisis.
At the time, Air France-KLM owed its salvation to the intervention of the French and Dutch states. Despite everything, the group continued to invest to preserve its future competitiveness by rationalizing its fleets. In 2019, it ordered sixty A220-300 medium-haul aircraft and then one hundred single-aisle A320neo family aircraft to renew and expand the fleets of its KLM and Transavia companies.
On track to return to its pre-crisis capacity next year, Air France-KLM achieved record profitability in the second quarter, achieving a net profit of 604 million euros between April and June, when the group had raked in 728 million for the whole of 2022.