Airbus May Launch New Jumbo Jets Boeing Rival Plans Decision Before The End Of This Year

Eyeing a chance to take a bite out of Boeing, European consortium Airbus Industrie said Wednesday it will decide soon whether to begin making new long-range jets.

Airbus said its board had decided to put on a fast track its studies of two “stretch” versions of its four-engine A340 passenger aircraft.

The world’s No. 2 plane maker said it would decide by the end of the year whether to actually produce the jets - capable of flying vast distances without refueling - and challenge a monopoly by Seattle-based Boeing Co. and its four-engine 747s.

The two market leaders have been going head to head for the lucrative market for so-called “super jumbos.”

Airbus said it is studying a 376-seat version of the A340, known as the A340-600, that would have a range of 8,500 statute miles. The A340-600 would compete directly with Boeing’s 747-400, which can carry 412 passengers 8,000 miles.

The A340-600 would be 35 feet longer than the A340-300, the current production version, and would be powered by a new engine with a thrust of more than 51,000 pounds.

Airbus said General Electric Co is working on the engines under an exclusive agreement signed earlier this year.

The A340-500 would be capable of carrying 316 passengers and would be 10-1/2 feet longer than the A340-300. Its range of 9,550 miles would allow it to fly non-stop routes such as Bombay, India, to New York and Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia.

“It would have an enormous range - more than any other airliner in the world,” Airbus said in a statement. Both new jets, it said, would feature a new, enlarged wing with an advanced aerodynamic design.

Airbus forecasts that the world’s airlines will need more than 3,600 aircraft in the 250-400 seat category, a sector that is only partially covered by its current A330-A340 family. The European group hopes to capture 50 percent of this market segment.

The A330-A340 family currently accounts for 45 percent of sales in the 250-300 seat market, Airbus said.

Airbus is a partnership of Daimler-Benz Aerospace of Germany, Aerospatiale of France, British Aerospace and Construcciones Aeronauticas of Spain.