Mark Broadbent and Mark Ayton detail the popularity of the legacy Airbus A330 family, reflected by a large operator base and continued investments to keep them fresh.
January 2022 marked 30 years since the Airbus A330 entered service. The original A330-200 and A330-300 variants, today marketed as the A330ceo (current engine option), have without a doubt been a great success.
Richard Aboulafia, vice-president of analysis at the Teal Group consultancy, told the author: “It was the first Airbus twin-aisle to sell more than 1,000 aircraft and the first twin-aisle in the world to be built at rates above 100 annually.”
Despite the A330-200 and A330-300 having been around for a quarter of a century, and the A330-900neo and A330-800neo variants launched in 2014 offering double-digit savings in fuel burn, emissions and operational costs on their forebears, the appeal of the A330ceo models endures.
Stuart Rubin, principal at analysts ICF, provided the author with some commentary on the in-service A330ceo fleet.
He said: “The fleet is reasonably well-dispersed geographically but is dominated by operators in the Asia Pacific region, where 46% of the aircraft are in service. One-quarter of the fleet is in service in Europe, while 13% of the…
