8.3.2: Types of aircraft

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Boeing and Airbus concentrate on wide-body and narrow-body jet airliners, while Bombardier and Embraer concentrate on regional airliners. Large networks of specialized parts suppliers from around the world support these manufacturers, who sometimes provide only the initial design and final assembly in their own plants.

Jet aircraft can be generally divided into:

Medium/long-haul (> 100 seats)
– Wide body (two decks): A380; B787; A350; B747; A340 family.
– Narrow body (one deck): B737 family and A320 family.
Short haul (< 100 seats)
– Bombardier CRJ700/900.
– Embraer 170-175-190-195.

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Table 8.3: Long-haul aircraft specifications. MTOW in tones, Range in kilometers, longitude and wing-span in meters. The Mach number corresponds to long-range operating Mach and max

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Table 8.4: Medium-haul aircraft specifications. MTOW in tones, Range in kilometers, longitude and wing-span in meters. The Mach number corresponds to long-range operating Mach and maximum operating Mach, respectively. Data retrieved from http://www.airliners.net.

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Table 8.5: Regional aircraft specifications. MTOW in tones, range in kilometers with typical pax, longitude and wing-span in meters. Mach number corresponds to maximum cruising speed. The velocity is given in km/h and corresponds to the maximum cruising velocity. Data retrieved from http://www.airliners.net.

Regional propellers are also short range with typically 30-80 seats. Table 8.3, Table 8.4, and Table 8.5 show the specifications of different aircraft.

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Table 8.6: Airbus medium-haul aircraft 2012 average prices list (million USD). Data retrieved from Airbus.

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Table 8.7: Airbus long-haul aircraft 2012 average prices list (million USD). Data retrieved from Airbus.

Table 8.6 and Table 8.7 show the average prices of Airbus manufactured aircraft. As it can be observed, medium-haul aircraft have a price of an order of 100 million USD, while the cost of the new A380 is around 400 million USD. Obviously, these prices depend upon many factors, such for instance, the configuration selected by the airline, commercial agreements, the currency exchange rates (note that aircraft are sold in USD currency), etc. Therefore, due to such high value, the policies of aircraft acquisition are key for the viability of the airline. In particular, airlines might acquire the aircraft or simply use it within a leasing or renting formula. Also, after some years of use, old aircraft are sold in the second hand market. In this way, airlines might rotate quickly their fleet in order to count with the newest technological advances.

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Figure 8.6: Airbus A320 family.