We’ve seen pictures of airline employees celebrating the latest addition to their fleet with Airbus staff, but as spotters we only ever see the result. Let’s take a look at what’s involved behind the scenes
The delivery process starts 4-5 days before the event for A320neo and 7 days for A350, mainly due to the cabin complexities. About a month before the delivery date, the Airbus team notifies the customer. Visas are applied for, transport and hotels arranged, plus all the other logistics needed to get airline representatives to the Delivery Centre at either TLS, XFW, TSN, MOB and YMX.
So, what needs to be checked on the aircraft? Exterior surfaces, paint must meet contract specifications. Internally, the flight deck and its systems. Then it’s the turn of the cabin, to ensure it matches what the airline wants. Also that galley equipment, overhead bins, IFE and safety requirements all work satisfactorily. On completion of all these checks, a customer acceptance flight is arranged. Here airborne checks are carried out to ensure the whole aircraft operates as it should. On the flightdeck, the customer pilot takes the left-hand seat, whilst their Airbus colleague sits on the right. A monitoring engineer occupies the jump seat. In the cabin, airline representatives tests include IFE, seat operation, aircon and lighting. After the flight is completed, 2 days are built into the schedule to fix any faults. Then a final flight conducted to ensure everything has been rectified.
Under EASA’s authority, Airbus then issues Form 52. This states the aircraft is compliant with its type certification. The next step is issuing a Certificate of Airworthiness for the airframe.
Moving on to the Delivery Centre at TLS. After many upgrades and a new building known as Terminal D, which is where customers are based during the process. The original building could only accommodate 4 aircraft, now there’s room for 12. The larger customer’s staff are permanent and specially selected by their employer to work alongside Airbus. For low-cost carriers, staff are only in attendance temporarily. The top (third) floor is where it all happens commercially. Payment, transfer of ownership and other necessary paperwork. Transfer of Title is the time when Form 52 is issued. Amongst the Airbus team is their Delivery Transaction Manager and Sales Contracts Manager. A final call made to the financial institutions involved, to ensure all their prerequisites have been met. The handover process then pauses whilst waiting for the financial transactions to be completed. As you would expect, stringent checks are conducted by banks because of the mind-blowing sums involved. When it’s all done, the bill of sale is completed and there’s time for champagne!
Now it’s time to go home, so everyone heads for the main part which resembles an airport terminal. This building is undergoing a further upgrade to accommodate 24 aircraft. The customer decides how much celebration they want so their aircraft can be positioned so it’s viewed from a large first-floor window, or an open balcony weather permitting. The ferry flight crew check in at the desks on the ground floor. After media photos and passengers, fuel and catering loaded then it’s time to go. However, there’s one last handover from Airbus. Although an aircraft is started differently to a car, a set of ceremonial keys is presented to the customer!
And finally…
LCY – since the initial announcement, it seems to have gone quiet on the airport’s wish to have the A320neo there. These things take time…
Social Media – never fails to create those moments when you wish an enthusiast had done his homework before making comments worthy of some UK media outlets. We know what FNC can be like, with weather conditions testing pilot skills. On one such occasion recently, a Jet2 Captain had 3 attempts at landing, before diverting to Porto Santo (PXO). On his return, he did another go around before achieving a successful landing. The enthusiast said “no wonder pilots refuse to come back here again”. Then, on diverting to PXO, he added “they would be analysing what went wrong”. When I asked a Captain from another airline if this is true, he responded “no, never” and “no, we’d be waiting for better weather”. His eye roll obvious…
Information courtesy of Airliner World, Airbus
Images courtesy of Air Data News, World Architect
©TPSC, LadyJet2 and photo/diagram suppliers