Posted on 03/01/2005 8:13:33 AM PST by floridarolf
A European consortium has been named as the preferred bidder for a nineteen billion euro contract to build refuelling aircraft for Britain's Royal Airforce. That means the AirTanker group, led by Airbus' parent company EADS, can arrange the three and a half billion euros in capital needed to fund the project. Under the Ministry of Defence contract Airtanker will own and maintain the refuelling planes on behalf of the RAF. ABM AMRO analyst Jonathon Paul said this opens up a very closed market: "I think it is important in terms of the strategy and the terms of possible contracts for tanker aircraft that could come onto the market. The fact is right now Boeing is over-dominating this market and has a near monopoly on it, especially due to the fact that the US constitutes the entire market for tanker aircraft."
EADS is looking to overtake Boeing in defence contracts in the same way that Airbus did for civilian passenger planes. In the near future the US military will have to replace more than 500 aging air refuelling planes. To try to capture some of that market, EADS has said it is thinking of building a factory there to offer tankers with more than 59% US components.
Boeing recently lost out to EADS for a similar order for the Australian air force. AirTanker plans to use 15 to 20 Airbus A330-200 planes to refuel RAF fighter jets and military aircraft. When not in use for refuelling, the tankers could be used for military transport purposes or even converted into passenger planes.
Obsolete Boeing placemarker
Doesn't the UK government own a piece of EADS?
Doesn't the UK government own a piece of EADS?
20%
Aviation ping
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