All-in-One Concept Boosts ACJ Appeal

Airbus has begun offering potential customers for its Corporate Jetliner an "all-in-one" concept that it believes will deliver unmatched space and flexibility, allowing customers to use the same aircraft to fulfill different roles at different times by means of rapid cabin reconfiguration.

It cites as an example an ACJ with a 46-seat cabin, typically used as an executive shuttle. Despite the demands of a busy schedule, there will still be some hours every week when ACJ time is available for other duties.

"What better way than to use them to bring a valued customer to visit?" asks Airbus. "For this role, a slightly different layout is needed-perhaps a lounge area for discussions or, if the customer lives a long way away, a private bedroom, so that they can fly overnight."

With the all-in-one concept the modular cabin (17 standard modules are offered) can easily be reconfigured overnight, and once the VIP job is done, can swiftly be returned to an executive shuttle set-up. Where the lounge/bedroom is not required, but the mission calls for working meetings with clients during a short daytime flight, the ACJ all-in-one concept allows an intermediate step in which part of the cabin is rearranged with tables surrounded by blocks of four seats.

Airbus is ready to examine the needs of customers, and is willing to work with them to demonstrate what can be done, and to build a business case-one that will save customers time and money, and one which can be justified in dollars and cents savings, the company says.

Twenty-six customers have now signed up for ACJs, which sell for about $38 million, "green." Six have been delivered. A network of approved cabin outfitters is in place in France, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S., and the ACJ is supported in service worldwide by Airbus Industrie and its "one-call-handles-all" partner United Services.

The 26 ACJs sold to date are going to companies, governments and individuals. Identified customers include the Al Kharafi Group of Kuwait, DaimlerChrysler of Germany, the Italian and French Air Forces, Qatar Airways and Aero Services Executive of France.