EVA Air has dropped the announcement jointly with Airbus that the airline will be integrating and welcoming into its fleet a substantial number of Airbus wide and narrow body planes. The interesting part of the news though refers to the wide body part of the order as this had been strongly dominated by Boeing in recent years. So let’s take a look at what the EVA Air Airbus order is all about.
In this post:
- Not Exactly News So To Say
- The Details of The EVA Air Airbus Order
- Which Planes Will The New Airbus Order Replace
- Interiors of The New EVA Air Airbus? Unknown
Not Exactly News So To Say
This is not exactly news, to be totally honest. The announcement that EVA was to order a number of Airbus plance landed in late 2023. However all details of that order remained undisclosed until just now.
Why is that? Probably the airline and the manufacturer had reached an agreement but the edges had to be smoothened. So that exactly what the parties have been woking since that very short tweet was released in 2023.
Now we finally have all the details and can go into depth in regards to how the fleet will evolve.
The Details of The EVA Air Airbus Order
The airline is ready to receive over the coming years a total of 33 Airbus planes. That is the total number across both narrow body and wide body planes the airline has ordered. More specifically the split is:
- 15 Airbus A350-1000 (wide body planes)
- 18 Airbus A321neo (narrow body planes)
We don’t know for now which variant of the A321neo EVA Air intends to acquire if the standard range, the LR or the XLR (once it is certified). Looking at how the over Taiwanese airline operates the type, China Airlines, it is likely it’ll be the standard version of the jet.
Which Planes Will The New Airbus Order Replace?
As these 2 aircraft types will be completely new to the EVA Air fleet the natural question that arises is: Which planes will these new arrivals replace?
It is quite straight forward with the Airbus A321neo jets. These will replace the ageing A321-200 the airline currently operates. The arrival of the new A321neo will therefore completely renovate the narrow body division of the EVA fleet. EVA will therefore be more efficient and offer a product up to par with its competitors even on the narrow body planes it operates.
Things are a little different in regards to the purchase of the 15 Airbus A350-1000. EVA operates a fleet of 12 A330 planes, however the A350 are likely not to replace these planes. I think they will be replacing part of the Boeing 777-300ERs. Why is that?
Analysing the way the airline uses its A330s you’ll soon come to realise that it uses them to operate flights to destinations with high demand with its high capacity cabin compared to the narrow bodies. These planes rarely fly to Europe let alone the US. So although some of the EVA Air A330s are by no means spring chickens with some past 12 years of age, it is ok to keep them still operational for the time being.
On the other hand the A350-1000 is the Airbus proposed replacement for the Boeing 777-300ER. These planes offer a similar capacity to the American manufactured jet and offer an extensive range. So it is highly likely that Airbus will be taking over part of what has until now been a Boeing only domain, the EVA Air long haul fleet and operations.
Interiors of The New EVA Air Airbus? Unknown
What we have no knowledge of whatsoever is how the airline will fit the new planes’ interiors. We can only speculate according to what EVA has done in the past and competitors in recent times.
As for the A350s it is likely that EVA will fit them with a 3 class configurations featuring Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class cabins.
The A321neo will probably have a similar layout to the older A321ceo with a 2 class configuration featuring Business Class and Economy Class. I am genuinely curious to find out if the airline will actually go down the route China Airlines went down offering seat back IFE on every seat of the plane. Only time will tell.
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