Posted on 06/12/2004 1:50:11 PM PDT by Archangelsk
Paris - The European aircraft maker Airbus on Friday signed a $2 billion contract with Chinese airline China Eastern for long-haul planes but is still waiting to clinch an order for its super-jumbo A380 plane.
China Eastern chairman Ye Yigan and Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard inked the deal for the sale of 20 A330-300 long-range planes for about two billion dollars.
The order was accompanied by a letter of intent to purchase 10 additional planes of the same type by another Chinese company that has yet to be named.
Forgeard said the sale would be worth slightly more than a billion dollars.
The orders come at an opportune time for the European aircraft maker, providing a stamp of approval to the competitiveness of its product just as it faces off against the new 7E7 Dreamliner jet by its US rival Boeing.
"The mark of confidence of China Eastern... has a value that goes beyond the contract in the context of current competition with Boeing for this type of plane," Forgeard said after a ceremony.
The deal was signed during the visit here of Chinese Vice Prime Minister Zeng Peiyan and in the presence of French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
A press statement from Raffarin's office had initially said Airbus A330-200 aircraft would be sold but Airbus later made clear that the deal covered the sale of A330-300 planes.
Airbus has sold 226 planes in China since the mid-1980s, representing a share of the market that is still less than that held by Boeing in terms of all aircraft in use, but is equivalent in terms of planes sold annually for five years, a spokeswoman said.
News of the order also comes a day after the US aerospace and defence group Boeing announced it had signed up two Chinese firms to supply components for its new 7E7 Dreamliner jet aircraft.
Boeing said Friday in Beijing it expects to take 7E7 orders from China this year.
For Airbus, the sale of its future superjumbo A380 jet in China is of paramount importance.
"I think about it every day," Forgeard said on Friday.
The sale of the A380 to the Chinese authorities is a key step in the European aircraft maker's objectives for commercial aviation in the Asian giant.
"The Chinese market is 10 percent of the world market in the 20 years to come," Forgeard said.
"The dream would be for the A380 to be in service for the Olympic Games of 2008" in China, he added.
So far, Airbus has received orders and commitments for 129 A380s from 11 customers. The aircraft is scheduled to enter service in 2006.
On Friday, two accords on aeronautic cooperation also were signed, one covering the production for Airbus of aircraft doors in China while the other covers the local assembly for Eurocopter, a subsidiary of Airbus' parent company EADS, of light-weight EC120 helicopters.
Ping
China needs to keep the U.S. and EU happy so they try to split orders between Airbus and Boeing.
OK, so why are you flying a plane manufactured in Brazil? :-) Incidentally, AirTran is hiring, here's their pay structure: http://www.airlinepilotpay.com
Boeing isn't toast as long as they have them there gummint contracts.
Airbus will Rue the day it built the 380. It will not break them, the EU taxpayer will bail them out, but that plane will be a millstone around their neck for 20 years.
I picked the name because at the time ERJ's were flying to my local airport.
Boeing shipped forty percent of their manufacturing to Japan who dissed Euro-bus-Airlines recently. As another one posted, China will be making substantial purchases from Boeing as the Eurojets do not have cost effective engines (french made). US jet engines last 30% longer, 3-7% better fuel economy and cost 25% less:)
Boeing shipped forty percent of their manufacturing to Japan who dissed Euro-bus-Airlines recently. As another one posted, China will be making substantial purchases from Boeing as the Eurojets do not have cost effective engines (french made). US jet engines last 30% longer, 3-7% better fuel economy and cost 25% less:)
Everyone says the same thing, even me, but I'm not too sure about that recently. What prevents the 380 from being bought here is the lack of concrete and terminal space (primarily due to the eco and NIMBY crowd). China and the middle-east don't have such problems and will gladly do business with the Euros (particularly since a lot of oil is going to flow to the Dragon).
What are the specs on the high bypass that the French are developing. I've never seen them.
They will make sales in the ME where operational cost are cheap, they are close to the UE and there is little reason to go off the Hub model. I bet all told they sell 350 of them by 2020.
If Boeing gets its act together they will eat their lunch in profitablity. They have to sink billiomns into the 380 which cannot go into other models. In any event there will be a lot of competitors. India, China and Japan will all get into the act. Boeing shares are worth twice that of EADS. Airbus really is not profitable if you factor back in the investment costs.
China has to watch what it does here. They are trying to pressure the EU to sell the,m arms. If they invest in Airbus equipment and the US keeps the embargo they will be in a very odd position. If theirmploy works, it may result in trade bans from the US. 20 planes in this period is nothing. I do not know what the truth is, but Boeing is expecting hundreds of orders in the next year.
Just seems like a non-productive way of doing things I guess. Then again, I don't know how Boeing does it so...lol
No one every pays list price for an aircraft. There are always discounts. Airbus however gives much larger discounts since their loses are covered by the EU taxpayers. The way Airbus got Qantas to buy the A380 instead of more 747's and new 777's was by giving Qantas an entire fleet of A330-300's at basically no charge.
The fuel economy of the 7E7 is supposed to be 20% better than the plane it replaces.
This will be an increasing factor considering higher fuel prices and instability in Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations.
Also, those I know in the Aerospace industry all say that Boeing is a much better built aircraft than Airbus.
European aircraft, to make an anology, are akin to the old Soviet T72 tanks (superior for a moment) in the mid-70's and then the M1's came along and made them obsolete!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.