Airbus, which designs and part-builds the wings for its airliners at Filton, has increased the catalogue prices of its commercial jets by an average of 3.9% – but is nudging up the price of its re-engined A320neo family of medium-haul, single-aisle jets by a bigger margin.
This is to take advantage of the surge in demand for the new planes, whose Filton-designed Sharklet wing-tips help make it more fuel-efficient than its rivals.
Prices of the A320neo have gone up by 6.1% on average with Airbus Chief Operating Officer-Customers John Leahy saying this reflected robust demand for the plane, which racked up 1,226 firm orders last year, or three-quarters of Airbus’s record total order intake.
Mr Leahy said: “On the A320neo versions, the catalogue prices will be raised by another $2m (£1.23bn)."
The average 3.9% price increase is smaller than last year’s 4.4% which Airbus said was necessary to offset mounting industrial investments and the weak dollar that made Airbus less competitive compared with its American rival Boeing.
The A320 family now ranges in price from $67.7m (£44m) to $103.6m (£67m), while the new-engine versions will cost between $88.8m (£57.5m) and $113.3m (£73.3m). Prices of wide-bodied aircraft are also going up by 3.9% on average but the price tag on a double-decker A380 superjumbo has been pegged at $389.9m (£252.5m).
