AIRBUS
-An Inside Tour-
Today is a special day, we are not going to introduce you a new airline but a manufacturer, Airbus. Airbus Commercial aircraft is the division of the Airbus Group which produces commercial jets. It was born in 1970 when the major European countries decided to create a consortium to build their own commercial aircraft. It started its activities with the Airbus A300, then came the A310, the A320 in the 80s, the A330 and A340 in the 90s. At the end of the 20th century, a secret program was launched, the A3XX, which was finally unveiled as the A380 in 2000. Their catalog is today made of the A320neo family, the A350, the A380, and the A330neo.
This is the latter that interests us today. The first A330neo made its maiden flight on October the 19th 2017, and after 13 months of test flights, it is today in service in the TAP Air Portugal fleet since November the 27th 2018. Today we will take you inside the A330’s Final Assembly Line and come back on the delivery ceremony.
MONDAY 8AM
We are ready to visit the A330’s FAL. We must first go to the delivery center to take our badge because we are entering a very secured area. If you’re an Airbus customer, don’t be afraid, your planes are well kept.
The Airbus A330neo FAL is the same than the A330’s one, where four aircraft are built at the same time. The first two stations are the same and are dedicated to the assembly of the wings coming from the UK, with the fuselage from St Nazaire. The second station, which can also receive two aircraft, is the fixing of the whole fuselage and the tail coming from Germany.
After a last move, the airplane will stay at the same position for all their final assembly, there are 4 of them in parallel. In Toulouse, only the commercial A330s are assembled. The MRTT, Beluga and freighters are assembled in Getafe, Spain. After their assembly, the planes are tested outside, where their engines are started for the first time. Then the painters have to complete those art pieces. They receive their livery, an operation which can take 10 days for 5 painting layers. They are then fitted with their commercial cabins.
The second A330neo, the CS-TUB, is waiting for us at the Airbus delivery center.
Indeed, TAP received as their first A330neo, not the first one built (CS-TUA), but the second. It is the property of Avolon and its engines are the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000.
All those actors are represented during the delivery ceremony, where Guillaume Faury - Airbus CEO,
Warren East - Rolls Royce CEO,
Domhnal Slattery - Avolon CEO,
and Antonoaldo Neves – TAP CEO took the floor to praise this plane's advantages and to claim their real trust in it.
After the traditional gift exchange,
it is time for us to visit this brand-new aircraft set to receive 34 passengers in Business and 264 in Economy, which represents 298 passengers. TAP Air Portugal has recently renewed their products and even if it isn't the best business class ever, it, however, looks like a really nice product. The economy has also been refreshed and looks very friendly.
The Airbus A330neo is now operated by TAP Air Portugal between Lisbon and Sao Paolo since December the 15th and it is scheduled to operate 5 routes between Lisbon and Brazil before the beginning of March. TAP has ordered 21 A330neo and will receive 19 of them this year. They are also to receive some A321neo, which will provide them with a really young and attractive fleet.
We want to warmly thanks Airbus for this first experience of a delivery ceremony, it was a real pleasure for us and we hope that you will appreciate it too. Stay with us during 2019 as we are going to unveil very exciting news soon.
- Thank you dear readers for your attention -