Dreamliner VS A350: the battle begins

On the successful segment of 250 to 350 seats, Boeing recently released the 787 Dreamliner. The American aircrafts manufacturer chose to bet on efficiency with this new plane. In order to do that, the 787 is built with lighter materials like carbon fibre and runs on two engines instead of four. With smaller fuel consumption and a larger operating range, Boeing wants to appeal to the airlines companies looking for cutting costs, especially on kerosene since it's one of their major spendings.

In response, Airbus decided to develop the A350 XWB for "Extra Wide Body" which means that this plane will also focus on energy saving with lighter materials. Other innovation will come with these new planes like larger windows, more space for luggages, less noise and even less air pressure in the cabine.

But even if Boeing faced many issues during the 787 development and again after the release with several incidents, Airbus is far behind because the A350 is expected to be in service only in 2014 (i.e. the first commercial flight). They didn't see the trend. In fact, in the future there will be more and more direct international flights, like Lyon-New York or Strasbourg-Singapore for instance. Consumers are tired to move to airport hub like Roissy in France or Heathrow in the UK in order to fly to New York. Furthermore, the bigger the plane, the bigger the line for boarding so it takes more time, thus leading to higher costs for airlines. That's why this new trend oriented the airlines' demand for more economic aircrafts, with fewer seats.