Japan's leading airlines will be under pressure to buy the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet once their rivals introduce it on Tokyo-bound flights, the chief commercial officer of European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie said yesterday.
"We are in discussions with JAL [Japan Airlines] and ANA [All Nippon Airways], and I hope they will buy [the A380], but whether they buy it or not, it will fly to Narita in ... 2006," said John J. Leahy at a business forum organized by the Nihon Keizai newspaper.
Four of the nine companies which have so far ordered the A380 -- 97 aircraft in all -- will be operating services to Tokyo's Narita airport, Leahy said.
"The Japanese public will see that it is a world class aircraft and it will be preferred by the public. JAL and ANA will be under pressure to have a similar product," he told reporters later.
Leahy claimed the arrival of the A380 scheduled for 2006 would have a similar impact to the launch of the Boeing 747, which caused the McDonnell Douglas DC8 and DC10 jets to become "obsolete almost overnight."
"We expect the same thing in 2006 with the A380 ... Passengers are going to prefer a bigger airplane compared to the 747 with a 30-year-old design," Leahy said.
He stressed that the A380 will have one third more space than the largest jumbo jets currently flying, and will be capable of carrying up to 1,000 passengers in the seating configuration used by Japanese airlines.
He argued the aircraft would be more fuel efficient and less noisy, making landings at Narita possible after 11pm and before 6am, when the airport is currently closed.
The first version of the US$250 million A380, which will have the capacity to carry 555 passengers in a standard three-class service, is expected to enter service in the first half of 2006. Asia as a whole is where Airbus expects to see the strongest growth, making it the world's biggest aviation market by 2020, Leahy said.
* Japanese airlines will need at least 600 new aircraft over the next 20 years.
* Airbus, which currently controls around 18 percent of the Japanese market, hopes to see its share rise to 50 percent.
The Airbus executive estimated that Japanese airlines alone will need at least 600 new aircraft over the next 20 years, and the European company, which currently controls around 18 percent of the Japanese market, hopes to see its share rise to 50 percent.
Airbus is not only talking to JAL and ANA about selling the A380 but also on renewing their entire fleets, Leahy said, adding he hoped ANA would base its fleet on Airbus' A319 and A318 models.
There was not much chance of Airbus encountering competition from a rival Asian manufacturer, because the cost of developing at least four different models of jet would be around US$30 billion, Leahy said.
"The way for Asia to become involved would be building components for Airbus and Boeing," Leahy said.
Last week Airbus announced that ShinMaywa Industries, Yokohama Rubber and Nikkiso Co, would join seven other Japanese groups participating in the project to build the world's largest airliner.
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