With the ranks of billionaires growing at a rapid rate and a large number of potential corporate and government customers in the region, Airbus Corporate Jets sees Latin America as a potential market for its ACJ large business jets, in particular the latest ACJneo (new engine option) family that was launched earlier this year. Deliveries of the ACJ320neo are due to begin in the fourth quarter of 2018, with ACJ319neo deliveries beginning in early 2019.

Illustrating the potential of the Latin American market, Airbus Corporate Jets predicts that, by 2017, the number of billionaires is expected to rise to 580 from 450, of which 240 are expected to be Brazilian, up from a 2012 figure of 190. The ACJ family is already in service with the Brazilian and Venezuelan governments, serving as the presidential aircraft in both cases.

Airbus Corporate Jets launched the ACJneo as a natural follow-on to the airliner version. Compared with the existing ACJ lineup–now dubbed “ceo” for “current engine options,” the new aircraft offers sharklets and new engines in the form of the CFM LEAP-1A or the Pratt &Whitney Pure Power PW1100G-JM, making the aircraft 16 percent more fuel-efficient. The family has been initially launched with the A319neo and A320neo versions. There are currently no plans for an ACJ318neo, but an A321-based long-range aircraft is underdiscussion.

For corporate/government operators, the ACJneo adds significant improvements over the existing ACJceo models. Range of the ACJ319neo with eight passengers is 6,750 nm/12,500 km, compared with 6,000 nm/11,100 km for the ACJ319ceo. An ACJ320neo can fly more than 6,000 nm/11,100 km with 25 passengers, compared to a figure of 4,300 nm/7,965 km with eight passengers for the ACJ320ceo. This is a result of installing four additional center tanks (ACT) instead of two, and opens up a considerable number of new city-pairs for an aircraft that already offers the widest and tallest cabin in its class.

Another improvement of the ACJneo is a lower cabin altitude of better than 6,400 feet/1,950 m on average, providing beneficial effects for passenger comfort. The ACJneo also offers improved fuel/baggage combinations. Four-tank variants of both ACJ319neo and ACJ320neo retain baggage holds fore and aft, and in the case of the ACJ320neo offer a capacity of 650 cu ft/18.4 cubic meters, sufficient for holding 138 large suitcases.

Airbus has reconfigured the tank arrangement of the ACJ319neo when compared to the ACJ319ceo. The aftmost ACT has been moved farther back in the aircraft so that a baggage hold becomes available between ACTs numbers 2 and 3, in line with the cargo door. Combining this new space with the forward hold offers 222 cu ft/6.29 cubic meters of baggage space in a four-tank fit, sufficient for 47 large cases. Alternatively, a fifth ACT can be installed in place of one of theholds.