United order good news for UK aviation industry

The U.K.’s recession hit manufacturing industry has just received some good news from the U.S. United Airlines has just announced an order for twenty-five Airbus A350 passenger planes to be delivered between 2016 and 2019. The A350 is a long range aircraft with a wide-body and the wings are made by Airbus U.K. which has workshops in Bristol and in Broughton in North Wales. Rolls Royce will also be pleased as it will be building the Trent engines which power the A350.

Continental also said that it will be ordering twenty-five Boeing 787 Dreamliners which could also be powered by Rolls Royce built engines.

Tom Enders, CEO and president of Airbus said that Continental’s decision to expand its fleet with the A350 was a continuation of twenty years of partnership between the airline and the manufacturer. He went on to say that the design of the A350 meant that it was one of the world’s most environmentally friendly passenger aircraft. United plans to replace its Boeing 747s and Boeing 767s with the new aircraft and by doing so reduce the amount of seats on it planes as well as greatly reduce fuel costs and emissions of CO2.

United’s chairman, president and CEO, Glenn Tilton said that the decision to acquire the new planes for its fleet would insure that the carrier would guarantee its future position in an extremely competitive market. Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chairman, president and CEO echoed the sentiment by saying that it is the right decision for United to place an order now to ensure that the carrier would be supplied with fuel efficient aircraft with excellent range well into the future.