Airbus sets out its stall ahead of new plane development
Airbus on Tuesday gave a glimpse of technologies for its next airplane, a replacement for its best-selling A320neo family due to enter service between 10 and 15 years from now. The question of when to replace the industry's top-selling model, which competes with Boeing's 737 MAX in the busiest part of the market, is one of the key decisions for Guillaume Faury as he enters a third three-year term as CEO next month. Airbus said the new airplane would be 20-30% more efficient than the current A320neo family. In the U.S., NASA has said it is working on a rival configuration with Boeing that could reduce fuel consumption and therefore emissions by up to 30%. Airbus is, however, keeping investors and competitors guessing over the scope and timing of any new project. On Monday, Faury said the plane would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, though Airbus has warmed to a potential open-fan engine studied by CFM that he described as more revolutionary than its alternatives. On Tuesday, the company's top development officials adopted a less cautious tone at an event to promote Airbus efforts to act as a catalyst for decarbonisation. "We want to do this major gap (with the current model) which is not incremental, which is not optimisation," said Bruno Fichefeux, head of future programmes at the world's largest planemaker. "We need to make sure that these technologies come to maturity and that we can bet our design on them, and we are not there yet," he told the Airbus Summit.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2025-03-26/general/airbus-sets-out-its-stall-ahead-of-new-plane-development
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Airbus sets out its stall ahead of new plane development
Airbus on Tuesday gave a glimpse of technologies for its next airplane, a replacement for its best-selling A320neo family due to enter service between 10 and 15 years from now. The question of when to replace the industry's top-selling model, which competes with Boeing's 737 MAX in the busiest part of the market, is one of the key decisions for Guillaume Faury as he enters a third three-year term as CEO next month. Airbus said the new airplane would be 20-30% more efficient than the current A320neo family. In the U.S., NASA has said it is working on a rival configuration with Boeing that could reduce fuel consumption and therefore emissions by up to 30%. Airbus is, however, keeping investors and competitors guessing over the scope and timing of any new project. On Monday, Faury said the plane would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, though Airbus has warmed to a potential open-fan engine studied by CFM that he described as more revolutionary than its alternatives. On Tuesday, the company's top development officials adopted a less cautious tone at an event to promote Airbus efforts to act as a catalyst for decarbonisation. "We want to do this major gap (with the current model) which is not incremental, which is not optimisation," said Bruno Fichefeux, head of future programmes at the world's largest planemaker. "We need to make sure that these technologies come to maturity and that we can bet our design on them, and we are not there yet," he told the Airbus Summit.<br/>
