Airbus undertakes large winglet retrofit evaluation on A320 Family

Large winglets upgrade to bring further fuel efficiency and residual value benefits for in-service A320 Family aircraft

21 JUNE 2011 PRESS RELEASE
Encouraged by the popular ‘Sharklet’ programme for new A320 Family aircraft, Airbus has decided to pursue a retrofit option of large winglets for the legacy in-service fleet. To this end, Airbus is evaluating the technical, operational and business aspects of a retrofit offering, to provide a solution for A320 Family aircraft currently in service.

Tom Williams, Executive Vice President, Programmes, says: “We are confident that our customers will appreciate not only the benefits from improved fuel efficiency that retrofitting large winglets will bring to their in-service A320 Family fleets, but also from the enhanced residual value."

He adds: “We’ve begun investigating in earnest, and our technical teams are confident that we can develop a retrofit solution. We are committed to making it happen either in-house or with external partners.”

The proposed large winglet retrofit offering will directly benefit from Airbus’ experience in developing the forward-fit Sharklet option for new-build aircraft, for which tests will soon be performed on our flight test A320 MSN1 aircraft.

Airbus invests approximately 100 million euros each year to keeping the A320 Family the benchmark eco-efficient Single Aisle airliner in service.