Airbus says that it is securing a price premium on initial sales of its new A320neo aircraft over the existing A320 model. Airbus list prices for the A320neo are around $6 million more than the existing A320 model range.
Barry Ecclestone, chief executive of its Airbus Americas unit, said at an investor conference last week that the company had "extracted" a premium from the launch customers. These include India’s IndiGo, Virgin America, Deutsche Lufthansa and International Lease Finance Corp.
Airlines, on the main, always secure discounts of some type from list price, and launch customers can expect even larger discounts for being first-movers, indeed in the case of ILFC the A320neo order also involved cancellations for A380 aircraft so it is virtually impossible to speculate on what Airbus did and did not gain.
The first A320neo is not due to be delivered until 2016, but even that date means that Airbus will have to increase production rates on the existing A320. Airbus is looking at the feasibility of further production increases. It already plans to lift output to 38 a month by 2013, and Airbus is talking to suppliers about the potential for 42 or even 44 a month to clear the backlog. This move has lead Boeing to also look at further production increases for its 737 range.
In other news Ecclestone said the new A350 remained on target for first delivery by the end of 2013. He also discounted comments from some industry executives that the 350-seat A350-1000 model due to enter service in 2015 was not meeting promised performance specifications when fitted with engines produced by Rolls-Royce. "As we have always defined it, [the A350-1000] is on track," he said.