Posted on 05/05/2007 5:45:58 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
Airbus said Friday it has once again raised the break-even point for the troubled A380.In 2005, Airbus was saying that it would need to sell only 270 of the planes to break even. Last year, that jumped to 420 planes as a result of costly wiring problems that delayed delivery of the A380 by up to two years.
Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois said Friday at the annual shareholder meeting of parent company European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. that the break-even point for the A380 has been raised, but he did not disclose to new figure.
"Clearly because of the difficulties of the A380, the break-even point has increased," Gallois said. EADS for now isn't giving specific targets on the number of A380s it needs to sell to break even on the project, he said.
Airbus has currently sold 156 A380s.
Friday's EADS shareholder meeting was anything but peaceful after a dismal 2006.
"Sometimes I feel that the competition between the A350 and Boeing's 787 is already lost," said a woman who identified herself as Miriam Lange.The Wall Street Journal Friday detailed the problems at EADS.
Today's annual meeting for EADS comes at a crucial time for the company, which is trying to nurse its Airbus division back to health after a series of missteps building and designing new models that dragged the plane maker to a €572 million ($777.6 million) loss last year and slashed the parent company's profit.
Now they may never even recover their development costs.
What is far worse for Airbus is that while they have been trying to fix the problems on the A380 they haven't been working on an answer to Boeing's 787, and Boeing doesn't appear to be slowing down to let Airbus catch up.
The future is looking pretty bright for Boeing as long as they can keep up the pace and deliver solid products with continued innovation.
They’ll break even on the 380 eventually, but by then they’ll be in the same hole with yet another albatross.
Why would they necessarily break even on the A380. Boeing has a plane that can compete on the low end of the VLA market and will have better seat mile costs. The 747 freighter is superior, and the A380F has been delayed at least ten years. After Boeing delivers the 787 and it is in revenue service, Boeing will start on a program to build a replacement for the 737 based on the technologies developed for the 787. After that program has planes in service, Boeing will start on a 777/747 replacement based on 787 technology. It will have twin engines and blow the A380's CASM out of the sky. Considering the number of A380's Airbus must sell just to break even not to mention get a decent ROI on the money invested in the program, Boeing won't even have to be in too much of a hurry to develop a composite 777/747 replacement in order to dry up A380 order prior to break even.
It’s probably more like 1,000+.
They would have to sell as many 380’s as Boeing has sold 737’s to even approach breakeven and that’s not including all of those generous gifts, oops I mean loans from the generous French and German taxpayers.
And still, I want to see one article that appropriately addresses the wake turbulence issue. Of all of the 380’s failings, and there are many, overweight, wiring doesn’t match up, limited airport access, this is by far the most serious. It means that space between 380’s and all other traffic has to be double the space between a 747 and other traffic. This has to lead to worldwide disruption of air traffic patterns when more than a few of these planes are flying. And yet, everyone is silent on the issue.
The Toulouse Goose is Cooked!
Doesn’t matter if its 420, 500 or 600.. they won’t sell 420 of these monstrosity... If they move 250 of them total I’ll be amazed.
Meanwhile, SFO continues its fool’s errand of taking its worst-in-the-whole-world baggage handling system, and making it into even more of a cluster_____ in anticipation of 380s flown by Asian carriers. I do not relish the inevitable pain these are going to cause. To boot, our envirowackos nixed the plan to build a new more separated twin runway so now, when one of these whales lands, it will cause a stack up. Neat, eh?
Who were the morons who laid out the airport in the first place? IAH would be able to handle handle A380's on existing runways and taxiways that were built almost 40 years ago. The airport director pointed out recently that the world's largest plane the Antonov AN-225 regularly visits IAH, and that IAH can easily handle smaller planes.
IAH is ready for the Airbus A380
For years Bush Intercontinental Airport has been accommodating the Antonov 225 – now the airport is ready for the Airbus A380
Houston Airport System
April 12, 2007Weighing in at 1.3 million pounds, the massive six-engine Antonov 225 Mriya has been comfortably handled by George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) for many years now.
The Mriya, Ukrainian for “dream” is the largest aircraft in the world.
It is 275 feet long and has a wing span of 290 feet. The aircraft has a spacious cargo compartment that can carry up to 50 automobiles or a single piece of cargo weighing up to 200 tons. The aircraft is also capable of transporting up to 200 tons of cargo outside the fuselage.
Originally, the An-225 was constructed to convey the Russian space shuttle, Buran, strapped on its back.
Today, the Antonov 225 is used to transport boats, cars, trucks, trailers and camping gear such as tents, air conditioners and other equipment to the U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq.
The world’s first double-deck passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 was unveiled by Airbus, a European aircraft manufacturer, in January 2005.
The A380 weighs in at 1.3 million pounds, the same as the Antonov 225. It has a shorter length of 240 feet and a smaller wing span of 262 feet.
Tom Bartlett, deputy director of operations for the Houston Airport System (HAS), says IAH will have no problem accommodating the A380 when it makes its first arrival at the airport. No set date has been established as of yet.
“We joke around a little bit because a lot of people do ask us if this airport is equipped or capable of handling the Airbus 380 – knowing we accommodate the Antonov, we’re happy to say absolutely we can accept a smaller plane,” says Bartlett. “With that in mind, yes it can come safely and efficiently.”
Bush Intercontinental has seen changes over the years. Once HAS management knew the A380 was going to be built, some proactive design criteria requirements were made at the airport.
Plans were implemented with the new runway expansion. All of the aircraft bridges built in the last five years have been designed to handle 1.4 to 1.6 million pounds, more than the gross weight certified for the An-225 and A380.
The rehabilitation done on Runway 15L/33R included design criteria for the A380. In addition, the turning radius has been widened on taxiways to accommodate the wider turn radius of the large airliner.
Although no A380-specific passenger facilities have been built at IAH, it is still possible to de-plane the double-deck aircraft by using two loading bridges.
There are no foreseeable plans for the A380 to come to Bush Intercontinental; however the airport has been designated as an alternate place to land for Air France.
Air France has scheduled a flight from Paris to Mexico City in the near future. Under certain circumstances such as bad weather or an emergency in flight, the A380 would land at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental.
And the 787 was or is scheduled to go into service when.....? And how does that relate to when the A380 was scheduled to go into service?
The 787 is scheduled to be rolled out on 7-8-2007 (just two months from today). It is scheduled to make its first fligtht in the fourth quarter of 2007 and enter revenue service in the fourth quarter of 2008. Boeing intends to build a large number of 787's and store them till they get their certification. This means that when it is certified, a whole bunch of airlines will have some immediately available.
The A380 was supposed to be in service by the fourth quarter of 2006. Then it had a one year delay. Then Airbus "found" they had a wiring problem and there would be another year of delay. This puts the entry in service in the fourth quarter of 2008. Also, the A380 will be in very limited production till 2010. Do the math. There will be lots more seats available on 787's than on A380's
I don’t blame the founders ... the field had to be built on landfill out into SF Bay. At the time (1950s) they reckoned that the separation they put in was enough. The issue is mostly when our summer coastal stratus or winter storms are in. The 1950s separation does not meet current regs for allowing side by side usage during such conditions.
Of course, Airbus doesn’t have to repay ANY of their A380 loans unless it turns a profit, from what I understand.
In other words, Airbus gambled on the A380 and won’t have to pay a price for their failure, because they’ll never have to pay those loans back.
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