Paul_Hartley

According to industry insiders, Airbus is set to officially announce the long-rumored Airbus A390 later this year. A twin-jet adaptation of the existing four-engined A380 airframe, the development of the aircraft is expected to take 4-5 years.

The A390 is the result of high demand from operators such as Emirates, British Airways and Delta Air Lines for a fuel-efficient two-engined aircraft able to carry 500+ passengers over 10,000+ nautical miles.
Skeptics have pointed to the disappointing sales of the A380, and the huge investment required to develop the new engines necessary to power the double-decker.

But insiders at Airbus have indicated that the manufacturer already has verbal assurances of at least 200 orders, notably from the large Middle East carriers, which is sufficient to move forward with the development.

Speaking confidentially to Simple Flying, they expressed confidence that the A390 could be in production within a few years:

“Airbus has historically been successful in converting quad-jet airframes into twin-jet success stories. Look no further than the A340, which led to the immensely successful A330 program. The A390 will be a leaf out of the same book. It will require very minimal changes from the base A380 design, which will speed up its time to market, and allow it to beat out the B777-9 in the very large airliner category in every imaginable metric.”  

What do you think? Will the A390 be a commercial success?