Posted on 02/22/2005 7:50:29 AM PST by wk4bush2004
LONDON (AP) The leaders of Britain, France and Germany have sent letters to the Polish government recommending it purchase planes from French company Airbus rather than U.S. rival Boeing Co.
Arkadiusz Godun, an adviser to Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka, confirmed Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had made their case for Airbus but said Belka had not made a decision on which planes to buy for the national airline.
"The prime minister received three letters from the three individuals and he acquainted himself with the offers but has not made any decisions," Godun said. "Each of the offers pointed out the positive qualities of the European offer."
Poland's national carrier LOT currently has an all-Boeing fleet of large planes, plus 16 smaller Embraer jets and 13 propeller-driven Aerospatiale-Alenias.
Airbus and Boeing have carried out a long trans-Atlantic rivalry to dominate the aerospace market.
Airbus has staked its future on demand for massive planes to transport a growing number of passengers, unveiling the world's largest commercial jet, the double-decker A380 "superjumbo," in January.
Chicago-based Boeing sees a different future, one in which industry deregulation and smaller, long-range planes like its planned two-aisle 787 Dreamliner -- scheduled to debut in 2008 -- allow passengers increasingly to fly direct, spurning stopovers.
And it is absolutely pathetic that leaders of sovereign nation-states are reduced to shilling for a theoretically private airplane manufacturer.
" I'm not going to try to tell you what planes to buy, you are a free country now, by the way , Boeing builds the best planes "
Er... to prevent the Soviets from rolling through the Fulda Gap and overrunning Western Europe? I don't think this is quite the concern it once was.
Of course, it's very useful for us to have large military bases is central Europe, because it makes for speedy deployments. But I imagine Poland would serve the purpose as well as Germany.
Poland, along with most of the former Soviet satellites, has been a staunch ally and a true friend. They really do deserve a proper reward.
Boeing changed the name to the 787 when they got the order for 60 from six Chinese airlines. It was expected anyway to coincide with Boeing tradition (707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777). The 757 was called the 7N7 in development.
I think I have saw news before that Boeing has changed it from 7E7 to 787.
They ( Boeing ) changed the name of it last month to 787 after they got a order from China.
It seems that this would be a violation of some trade treaty we have with the EU.
I wounder what would happen to the naming system after the development of 797. :)
Apparently the treaties mean nothing to them.
Analysts theorize that it will probably go to 808 and so on.
No. The reason they are there is because of Nazi Germany. Forget about Russia.
AirBus's marketing is centered on "we are not american"
Look for the next campaign to say that french islamic terrorists are going to target amercian based airframes, as a marketing propaganda.
(al jazeera will say boeings are jet fueled with the blood of arab babies.)
With Britain, France and Germany all having national airlines, this would be a bad investment for Poland no matter which manufacturer they choose. It'll just create excess capacitiy in the Euro air travel market. Instead, they should invest in transportation infrastructure that will benefit their own citizenry: modern high-speed rail and Maglev. Let all the other Euroweenie nations fly in and out of Krakow. Passengers gotta travel on SOMETHING once they get on the ground!!!
The problem is that the corrupt French are involved.
France is forcing Thailand to buy six Airbus A380's or they will slap a huge EU wide tariff on Thailand's biggest export, their sea farm grown prawns.
I am sure that France will use similar tactics against Poland as well.
reboot to 007
Poland needs to stand up and say "NO, FRANCE!"
Willie, You do love your trains!
Do what with the pickle?
It's a zoo trying to board a 130 into 737 now in the terminals. Can you imagine the chaos at the gate of trying to organize and load 600! It could take an hour to board! What waiting area could handle that many passengers for one plane with 5 other gates and THEIR PASSENGERS! No one ever talks about that inconvenience.
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