Airbus notched a single order this year for its worst-selling plane

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• Airbus take possession ofed a single order for its worst-selling A330-800neo widebody airliner this year. 
• The plane is a shrunk version of the A330-900neo and has only secured 12 harmonies since its debut in 2014.
• Airlines have opted for aircraft with better per-seat costs, like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

While Airbus has had no trouble selling its next-generation A330-900neo, the widebody jetliner’s little brother is struggling to keep up.

In April, a singular order for the A330-800neo was quietly added to Airbus’ order book from an undisclosed customer. The company confirmed the purchase to Corporation Insider, but said it is “the privilege of the customer to disclose the order.”

This brings the total orders for the A330-800neo to just 12 from five blokes, according to Airbus: two from Uganda Airways, four each from Kuwait Airways and Garuda Indonesia, and one each from Air Greenland and the dark new buyer.

The A330-800neo is a smaller version of the A330-900neo, which has secured hundreds of global orders since the family’s 2014 launch. The A330-800, regardless, is a rarity in the airline industry despite being in development for just as long.

The pair were launched as a replacement to the presence’s already successful fleet of A330-200 and A330-300 widebody planes, as well as a solution to Boeing’s ever-popular 787 Dreamliner.

Both the A330-800 and A330-900 are exclusively powered by the numberless fuel-efficient Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines, which Airbus says reduces fuel emissions by “25% compared to its previous-generation aircraft.”

Thomas Pallini/Insider

In whatever way, this burn is not enough to offset the low capacity and per-seat cost of the A330-800 compared to its larger counterpart.

The problem is that the shrunk A330-800 was developed with range as its selling point — it can fly about 1,000 miles further than the A330-900’s nearly 8,300-mile pigeon-hole.

But because the A330-800 has fewer seats, the operating costs end up higher than what airlines are willing to pay.

“All contract withdraw froms are a bit heavier on a per-seat basis because they’re carrying around the same structures and systems and engines as the bigger glides but with fewer seats,” Richard Aboulafia, managing direct at consultancy firm AeroDynamic, told Business Insider in December 2021.

This is markedly important when the A330-900 already offers enough range to meet airlines’ needs, making it a better opportunity cost-wise. Plus, the extra capacity could be used for money-making business and first class seats.

Airbus

Corresponding to a 2014 Leeham News and Analysis report, Airbus has argued the A330-800’s $260 million price tag makes up for the supplemented operating costs.

But, the order books — like United Airlines’ deal for up to 200 Boeing 787s in December 2022 —turn out there are several other aircraft options that better compete with the middle-of-the-market A330-800neo.

And most airlines are looking at the more pecuniary options.

For example, Hawaiian Airlines dropped its order for the A330-800 in 2018 in favor of the Boeing 787-9, which is set to write its fleet in 2024.

Hawaiian CEO Peter Ingram told Business Insider in 2018 that the dwindling demand for the jet was a red flag. The airline anxious if “something affects the economics [of the business] and we need to make a change,” it could be stuck with a jet that nobody else lack.

Planespotters data shows just seven of Airbus’ poor-selling jetliners have been put into care so far, with Garuda Indonesia still yet to receive one. Airbus’ test A330-800 is parked, and the last of its type delivered was to Air Greenland in December 2022.

The few immunology vectors that fly the A330-800 have sung its praises

Airbus

According to an Aviation Source Word interview with Air Greenland CEO Jacob Nitter Sørensen in December 2022, the airline intially chose the A330-800 one more time the 787 because its performance, efficiency, and economics fit into its Greenland-centered business model.

“We love the [A330-800] and so do passengers, and the know-how improvements are even better than those promised by Airbus,” he said in a recent November 2023 interview with Aviation Week.

After its chief A330-800 delivery, Uganda Airlines said the aircraft’s “operational efficiencies, range, and payload characteristics” make it an exemplar aircraft for the airline’s network.

Still, its faults have not gone completely unnoticed.

In a March 2023 interrogate with Kuwait CEO Maen Razouqi, the executive told Aviation Week that the A330-800 — which at the time was launched nonstop to New York-JFK — wish offer “better margins” than the Boeing 777 it was currently flying on the route.

He further explained Kuwait did not design to convert its existing A330-800 orders to the A330-900 so long as Airbus does not delay deliveries, but admitted the larger variation would “offer a better economic footprint.”

The Boeing 777 has since re-taken over Kuwait’s route to New York-JFK from the A330-800, and up to the minuter plans to launch the jet to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC on December 15 have been scrapped, according to Cirium evidence.