The A330 Family legacy continues with the 1,500th delivery

The A330 Family’s 1,500th delivery on 21st September to Delta Air Lines says a great deal about the enduring qualities of the aircraft’s original design, coupled with the constant infusion of the latest technologies, culminating in today’s A330neo variant. The application of ‘incremental innovations’, since its service entry, has resulted in the A330’s ongoing versatility, functionality, increased payload-range, class-leading economy with state-of-the-art Airspace cabin comfort and 4th generation IFE.

The A330neo builds on the A330ceo’s proven credentials, saving airlines around 25 percent fuel burn per seat compared with the previous-generation aircraft it replaces: the 767-300. Comprising two versions – the A330-900 (which first entered service in November 2018 with TAP) and the smaller A330-800 (which enters service in the coming weeks) – the NEO incorporates a new high-aspect ratio wing with carbon fibre wing tips, the latest-generation Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines with a 10:1 bypass ratio, more seats and new Airspace cabin features such as fully-variable colour LED mood lighting. It is noteworthy that the newest A330neo variant with a 251t MTOW (with certification iminent at the time of writing) can fly around 8,000nm with a full passenger load – around twice as far as the very first 212t A330-300 had achieved. Furthermore, the A330neo is a very quiet aircraft, exceeding the most stringent industry regulations – for example, achieving 16dB lower noise margin relative to ICAO Chapter 4.

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