Airbus to offer longer-range A330 plane

Farnborough, England: European planemaker Airbus will revamp its A330 wide-body passenger jet in order to boost its range, it said at the Farnborough Airshow on Monday.

Industry sources told Reuters earlier on Monday that Airbus would announce a partial redesign of the jet, increasing the maximum amount of fuel or payload at take-off to extend its range.

The 240 tonne A330-300 will have an increased range of 11,020 km, meaning it can now connect London to Tokyo, Frankfurt to Cape Town, Beijing to Melbourne, Airbus said.

Airbus is revamping the A330 at a time when arch-rival Boeing is pondering a new competing version of its 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus said it hoped to announce a customer for the enhanced A330 during this week’s airshow.