Final

The Final tag on the old Flying Engineer blog held one post: the first Airbus A320neo, MSN 6101 (A320-271N), entering final assembly at Toulouse on 19 March 2014.

The milestone

The forward fuselage came from St. Nazaire in France and the aft fuselage from Hamburg in Germany. They were joined at the final assembly line (FAL), which marked the start of final assembly. The wing is joined to the fuselage next. A full A320 Family assembly takes about a month. The program had passed a milestone in November 2013, when the first major component, the engine pylon, was assembled. First flight was expected in autumn 2014, almost four years after the program launched in December 2010.

Why the neo changes so little

Airbus chose to re-engine the A320 after sensing coming competition from Bombardier's C Series. The neo keeps 95 percent airframe commonality with the current A320, which keeps the dispatch reliability of a mature airframe. Sharklets first flew in November 2011, and the first sharklet equipped A320, MSN 5428, was delivered in December 2012. Sharklets save up to 4 percent fuel on long flights. The neo adds more wing and fuselage strengthening for the heavier engines, the Pratt and Whitney PW1100G or the CFM LEAP-1A. Together with sharklets they cut fuel use by 15 percent on 800 nm routes and 16 percent or more on longer ones, compared with an A320 without sharklets. The PW1100G first flew in May 2013 on a Pratt and Whitney 747SP test bed.

Orders and customers

Compared with the Boeing 737 MAX, the Embraer E2 and the C Series, the neo changes the least, so it should have the fewest early reliability problems. Order numbers at that time were 2,667 for the A320neo, 1,807 for the 737 MAX, 200 firm for the E2 (still on paper) and 201 for the C Series, which had three aircraft flying. The post credited the neo's success to few changes, planned service entry in the fourth quarter of 2015, two engine suppliers, schedule discipline and the smallest training impact.

IndiGo had ordered 180 A320neo Family aircraft, including A321neo. GoAir had 72 on order and AirAsia 264. IndiGo and GoAir chose the PW1100G. GoAir, which flies CFM powered aircraft, switched suppliers, as the PW1100G offers room for growth and is available sooner than the LEAP-1A. AirAsia chose the LEAP-1A.