Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Qatar Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said Airbus Group NV should consider a larger variant of its new A350 wide-body and upgrade its A380 superjumbo with new engines to make the jets more appealing.

While the mid-sized A350-900 recently added to Qatar’s fleet is “head and shoulders” above Boeing models, the U.S. company’s 777X-9 will probably form the backbone of fleets of many major airlines once it’s introduced at the end of the decade, Al Baker said at a conference in Dubai on Wednesday. Airbus should consider an A350 type larger than the -1000 stretch version to retaliate, he said.

Airbus’s largest aircraft have struggled to sustain their order momentum, with the A380 in particular failing to win fresh deals in recent years. Al Baker said the double-decker would be a “killer” with a 10 percent to 15 percent lower fuel burn, an advantage Airbus might achieve with new engines, and that he wouldn’t buy more of the planes in its current form.

Emirates President Tim Clark, whose airline is the biggest customer for the A380, has also urged Airbus to fit new engines on the aircraft, a step the manufacturer has said it will consider alongside a more gradual improvement of the performance. Clark said on Tuesday that Airbus may reach a decision on an A380neo type by June or July, around the time of the Paris Air Show.

Al Baker said that earnings and sales have been hurt by a delay in aircraft deliveries, with the revenue performance not meeting his targets after the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the A380 were delayed. Qatar Airways’ financial year ended March 31.