Premium #345 – The recent A350XWB order changes

There has been some back and forth on what the recent order changes for the A350XWB mean – United switching to -900s as did Cathay.  American is now seemingly uncertain of its order for 22.  If there is any trend here, a sentiment perhaps, it seems to be running negative on the A350.  Is that fair?

Take a look at the numbers in this table.   Some perspective might be useful. We believe the A350-900 is the most likely candidate to replace the 777-200ER.  While the larger 787 models are fine aircraft, they do not quite match the same key numbers as well as the A350-900.On the other hand, the A350-1000 is almost identical to the 777-300ER as the next table illustrates.