Posted on 01/18/2005 7:45:22 AM PST by Happy2BMe
Airbus unveiled the world's biggest passenger jet in a glitzy ceremony in which the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Spain hailed Europe's victory over the United States as the new king of the commercial skies.
The huge A380 superjumbo, which can carry up to 840 people on its two full decks, supersedes the ageing 747 by US rival Boeing as the biggest civilian aircraft ever made.
When it is put into service early next year, it will become the flagship of many airline fleets and offer unprecedented amenities on long-haul services, including, in some cases, gyms, bedrooms and bars.
For the countries which backed the 10.7-billion-euro (14-billion-dollar) development cost, the plane stood as a prominent symbol of European cooperation.
"Good old Europe has made this possible," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a packed hall in Airbus's headquarters in Toulouse, southwest France.
That was a barely-veiled barb recalling the US dismissal of France, Germany and other EU states in 2003 as "Old Europe" because of their opposition to the war on Iraq.
Noel Forgeard, the French head of Airbus, made similar hints in his presentation of the A380 during a spectacle featuring computer graphics, atmospheric theme music and swirling colours.
"The European states -- so easily accused of weakness -- backed this fantastic challenge 35 years ago and have believed in the A380," he said.
The hubris on display was reinforced by recent figures showing that, for the second year running, Airbus has outsold Boeing and now holds some 57 percent of the world market for passenger aircraft.
The company, a majority owned subsidiary of the listed European Aerospace and Defence Company (with 20 percent in the hands of Britain's BAE Systems), forecasts that the A380 will extend that lead.
Thirteen airlines have already placed firm orders for 139 of the planes. Airbus calculates that by 2008 it will reach the break-even point of 250 A380s sold, and from that point it will turn out 35 of the aircraft per year to rising profits.
The catalogue price of the huge machine -- boasting a wingspan of 80 metres (262 feet), overall length of 73 metres (239 feet), height of 24 metres (79 feet) and maximum take-off weight of 560 tonnes -- is between 263 and 286 million dollars, though discounts are frequently applied.
French President Jacques Chirac called the project a "big success" and said: "We can, and we must, go further on this path of European construction so essential for growth and employment."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the plane was "the culmination of many years of hard work" and congratulated the workers across Europe who made it happen.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Europe was "unstoppable" when it pooled its efforts.
The plane, Zapatero said, "has turned this historic moment into a moment in which cooperation and globalisation are giving rise to more peace and justice."
The four EU leaders later lunched together, leaving industry VIPS to get close to the huge white plane sitting in its hangar.
Airline executives at the presentation were superlative in their praise, even though the A380 has yet to undergo test flights scheduled for March or April.
Richard Branson, the head of Britain's Virgin Atlantic, said his airline would pamper passengers on the six A380s ordered by including gyms, beauty parlours, bars -- and even casinos and double beds.
The last two features meant "you'll have at least two ways to get lucky on our flights," Branson joked.
The biggest buyer of the new plane is the Emirates airline, which has ordered 43. "The A380 will be the future of air travel," its chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, said.
Airbus's success with the A380 is raising hackles at Boeing, which has won relatively little interest in its own new offering, a long-range mid-size plane called the 7E7 Dreamliner.
A bruising dispute over state subsidies between Boeing and Airbus is currently the subject of tense negotiations which, if they fail at the end of a three-month deadline, will blow up into a full-blown arbitration case at the World Trade Organisation.
Boeing has publicly claimed Airbus got the economics wrong, and that hub-bypass is the market sweet spot.
That just isn't so. AirBus will sell more than their stated goal of break-even easily. They will probably sell more than 400 of these.
Speaking of FEDEX, Memphis International seems too small for this thing.
"The important distinction here is that Airbus is not really a private firm, but a government creation."
Thats exactly my point!
This is why it is a competition between COUNTRIES.
Even though our companies here are privately owned, the tax and trade policies they operate and comptete under are set at the national level.
Yeah, I was wondering if this was actually financially feasible. If this doesn't actually result in higher profits for airlines, it's not going to get off the ground a whole hell of a lot.
Two competing VLA's would end up just like the DC-10 vs. the L-1011 in the 1970's. Neither aircraft was profitable since each took a roughly equal market share. The L-1011 almost bankrupt Lockheed and the failure of the DC-10 was just one more nail in McDonnell Douglas' coffin.
I liken some of the commentary I read and hear on this matter to the hysteria I hear from some fellow Americans on the Euro Vs. the American Dollar. So what, a european firm created a plane that will likely be in high demand. It's their perogative to do so just as it is to create and use a unified currency. We live in an economically competitive world. If and when Boeing makes a similar plane, the world would benefit due to competition in a competitive world.
Whoa! Never seen that one. Did you see the one of the A-10 that crawled back to base (female pilot) during Iraqi Freedom?
Boeing originally offered folding wings as an option for the 777 so it could fit into smaller gates (767/A300/A310 sized) but because of the added weight involved with the folding wing design, no airline decided to take up the option. Boeing no longer offers it on the 777.
Europe's attitude: TOGETHER we will squash the Americans!
Me too (shrug). All I can say is what my father tells me. I figure he would be in a position to know (the dinosaurs were walking when he started there), but admittedly he's in management in Boeing's defense area.
Yah, well, this American ain't standing under that thing.
That may be the case in Asia but there's not an infinite amount of land available to US airports for expansion.
It boils down to costs more: Having more airplanes of smaller size (higher margin cost per unit)..OR..Not filling seats. High resolution of the market, or grainy resolution.
That's for the Airlines side, for Airbus, the big question is How many of the markets exist?
I don't think they really care, it ain't their money, but it's their glory.
Wow! - What an outpouring of counter-Schadenfreude in this thread!!!
Stop bitching and moaning and putting down other's achievements. Get off your complacent ass and face reality!
They just scored on us.
We freepers, if anyone, believe in competition.
How about getting back in the game and kicking some ass rather than pretending that nothing happened.
Remember Sputnik!!
There's actually quite a bit of land available...especially for small airports. The big hub, with 10K foot airstrips, are dinosaurs, 4k foot (many ex-militray training fields) are at almost every town.
See #228.
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