Airbus flies second Leap-powered A320neo

Airbus has introduced the second CFM International Leap-powered A320neo into the type’s flight-test campaign.

The aircraft performed its maiden flight on 29 September, operating from Hamburg to Toulouse, the airframer confirms.

Its initial sortie came just over four months after the first Leap-1A aircraft joined the campaign.

The second aircraft (D-AVVB) brings to four the number of A320neos in the test fleet, two with the Leap-1A engine and two with the rival Pratt & WhitneyPW1100G.

Airbus resumed flight testing with both PW1100G-powered jets earlier this month, having been forced to ground the aircraft for weeks while it resolved an engine component problem.

It had restored one of the two to flight status in July but the other only started flying again this month.

Airbus has maintained that it remains on track, despite the hitch, to deliver the first A320neo by the end of this year.

It has started, in the last few days, function and reliability tests on a customer aircraft, MSN6720, an airframe destined to be handed to Indian budget operator IndiGo.

“The objective here is to perform flights with a production aircraft in an airline-like environment, to test reliability while optimising resources,” says the airframer.

Airbus says that this aircraft, a PW1100G-equipped jet, conducted its first flight on 25 September. IndiGo has 430 A320neos on order.