THIS WEEK
Comac calm as C919 first flight slips
THIS WEEK P12 PROCUREMENT CRAIG HOYLE LONDON
STRATEGY
French budget plan applies brakes to Rafale deliveries
O’Leary names quintet of future airline survivors
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Proposed law would also slow A400M transport and A330 multi-role tanker transport arrivals
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Just 26 Rafales would be delivered in 20142019 under the plan
French air force
eliveries of the Dassault Rafale fighter, Airbus Military A400M transport and A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) to France could be slowed significantly over the next six years, if the nation’s newly proposed military planning law is adopted. Outlined by defence minister Jean Yves Le-Drian on 2 August, the suggested spending plan for 2014-19 would slow deliveries of the Rafale to a combined 26 aircraft for the French air force and navy. While a significant reduction from the 11 examples currently being produced per annum, the fall could be accommodated if potential export sales are finalised. A Dassaultled team is still negotiating the terms for a planned 126-unit order for India, with the type also on offer to nations including Brazil, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. The draft document says 15 A400Ms would be handed over to the French air force within the same period, including only two of a planned three this year. The slower-than-expected rate of introduction would be partly managed by upgrading the service’s current 14 Lockheed Martin C-130H transports. A programme to acquire 12
A330 MRTTs would be launched in 2014, the defence ministry says, but only two would be in use by the end of 2019. Eurocopter would deliver 42 NH Industries NH90s and 16 HAD-standard Tiger attack helicopters, and upgrade earlier HAPconfiguration examples of the latter. Twelve General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Reaper unmanned air vehicles would also be introduced, with the first potentially to be delivered in late 2013, with 14 tactical UAVs also to be bought. Paris will, meanwhile, continue to give priority to an Anglo-French project to design an operational unmanned combat
air system for longer-term use. Upgrades would be performed on six Dassault Mirage 2000D strike aircraft and four ATL-2 Atlantique maritime patrol aircraft, with the latter to be the first examples from a planned 15-aircraft project that would extend operations of the type beyond 2030. Worth €190 billion ($254 billion), the proposed six-year spending package will be examined by French parliamentarians following the summer recess, with a final version to be adopted before 31 December. O Read the latest news on cuts to global defence budgets at flightglobal.com/defence
PRODUCTION STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC
Bombardier builds for CSeries future hile first flight of the CSeries test aircraft remains vaguely scheduled for the “coming weeks”, Bombardier has announced progress in another critical area of the programme. Construction has begun on the new CSeries final assembly plant that is sized to support production of at least 120 aircraft per year, Bombardier says. The 667,000ft² (62,000m²) factory doubles the company’s industrial complex in Mirabel, where it also builds CRJ regional jets.
flightglobal.com
The first seven CS100 and CS300 flight test aircraft and the first production models are being assembled in a modified and retooled CRJ assembly building.
Patrick Cardinal
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Ground tests are ongoing
Bombardier plans to move to the new expanded and dedicated CSeries factory after construction is completed in mid-2014. The new factory will house a single final assembly line for the CSeries with seven positions. The line can support a production rate of up to 12 aircraft per month at peak output. Although the firm order backlog remains only 177 aircraft, officials have discussed the possibility of opening a second line if demand calls for raising output to up 20 per month. O
yanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has named the five airlines he expects to be the only major players left in the European market of the future. Air France, British Airways, EasyJet and Lufthansa join O’Leary’s Irish budget carrier on his shortlist. He reckons Ryanair still has a long way to go toward reaching its full potential in Europe, and is casting his eye further afield: long-haul low-cost services to the USA are a possibility, he says, but only if Europe and America sign a full open-skies deal. As it strives to maximise European business, Ryanair is exploring the potential of adding new bases to the 57 it already operates across the continent, with a focus on airports larger than the “secondary or tertiary” ones it already serves.
Cologne and Dortmund have approached [Ryanair] with incentives to operate there O’Leary confirms that German airports Cologne and Dortmund have approached his airline with incentives to operate there as services by Air Berlin are cut back. Network contraction by rivals is also creating opportunities in Spain and Italy, says O’Leary, while even busy airports such as London Gatwick – to which Ryanair operates, but at which it does not have a base – have slots at certain times of the day amenable to non-time-sensitive flights serving holiday destinations. As for adding transatlantic services, O’Leary sketches out a vision of operating 30-40 long-range twinjets of the size of the Airbus A330 or Boeing 787, but notes an obstacle: lack of aircraft availability due to the order backlog created by Gulf airlines’ expansion. O
13-19 August 2013 | Flight International | 11