Don’t get it twisted , the Airbus A330-800 is actually a sleek and beautiful aeroplane! However no one wants it….except Uganda! The planemaker has sold over 18,000 jets all over the world — with over 1,700 of those being A330s — yet only Uganda is the only sole customer of the A330-800! We are special people, aren’t we? Uganda Airlines also ordered for four Bombadier CRJ900.
So what’s the fuss about “our Airbus “? To begin with, the -800 is the smaller of the two A330neo siblings, successors to the current very successful A330s but with more efficient engines (that’s where the “neo” name is from: “new engine option”.)
Hawaiian Airlines was Airbus’ sole customer for the A330-800neo, with an order of six aircraft in July 2014.Since it was a non binding agreement, they later settled for the much larger Boeing 787-9s with an order of 20 planes for the yet to the released plane!
Since then, Airbus hasn’t been able to land another customer for the new aircraft till Uganda Airlines made a purchase order for two!
The -800 has a slightly longer range and slightly smaller fuel burn than the larger variant but airlines have been opting for the -900 instead of the -800. However, the lower fuel burn accounts for just a 2.3% difference from the -900 which is not really a big deal in today’s fuel prices.
The bigger one seats about 280 to 300 and flies comfortably across the Atlantic or from the US West Coast to East Asia. The -900 carries up to more than 50 passengers than -800.
-800 costs less than the more advanced but similarly sized A350-900, and can do a lot of the high-traffic, daily jobs connecting hubs that airlines make money from on long-haul route.
Also with smaller size comes weight restrictions meaning less baggage!
Well, perhaps Uganda Airlines did not anticipate as much demand for it’s service . I’m no aircraft expert so I will leave it at that.
In summary, just as women and men (of late) have agreed, size does matter. The great news is that the national carrier has been revamped!
