Posted on 05/03/2005 11:30:55 PM PDT by zipper
Airbus, an EADS joint company with headquarters in Toulouse, France, joined the commercial aircraft market in 1972. Back then, said T. Allan McArtor, chair of Airbus North America Holdings, Inc., nobody thought the company could compete.
Airbus Chair T. Allan McArtor says sales have gone from 18 percent of new aircraft orders in 1995 to 54 percent in 2004.
"People snickered, and some outright laughed, but looking back, it's easy to understand why," McArtor said. "This upstart was taking on business icons—Boeing, and in those days, other formidable competitors like Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed."
As recently as 1995, Airbus had only 18 percent of new aircraft orders, compared with 82 percent for Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. In 2004, though, Airbus had a 54 percent market share, with worldwide sales in 2004 in excess of $27 billion.
McArtor said they became the world's leading aircraft manufacturer by listening to what the world's airlines wanted—and what they didn't want.
"They didn't want another 777 stretch aircraft," he said. "They wanted more modern, advanced aircraft with technology meeting their needs."
[snip]
A homerun: the A380
When McArtor talks about the A380, the world's first double-deck passenger jet, scheduled to enter service next year, you can hear the excitement in his voice.
"The passenger version is just around the corner," he said. "Singapore Airlines will be the first commercial carrier to enter service with the A380 in the second quarter of 2006."
As well, Emirates Airline in the Gulf region ordered 45 A380s, adding to its $30 billion fleet expansion.
"The A380 has been the most successful initial launch of any airplane in the world," said McArtor. "We have 154 firm orders for the A380; that's cash on the barrelhead!"
He said the A380 would make it possible for passengers to fly on long-range flights such as Paris to Asia, or Memphis to Paris.
With a little help, the first A380 is en route to Airbus’ flight test center at Toulouse-Blagnac International Airport.
"Actually, with a little bit of a payload penalty, you can fly nonstop from Asia to Memphis," he said. "That's the whole idea; you can bypass some of the other technical stops that you were required to make before. It's not a matter that you even have a choice; if you're going from Sydney to London, you're going from a hub to another hub. When you do that, you want an airplane that has creature comforts, and the operator wants it to be fuel efficient, quiet and with low emissions. You and I aren't going to get in the A380 and fly Chicago to Dallas because that's not its market. But Chicago to Hong Kong, that's another deal."
for more see link:
http://www.airportjournals.com/Display.cfm?varID=0505012
Another factoid, as of March 5, 44 per cent of all A-380's ordered (154 total orders) will be equipped with the GP7200 engine, made by GE/Pratt&Whitney: http://www.enginealliance.com/aboutmrkt.html
Excerpts:
"Airbus has provided 140,000 American jobs and we spend $6.9 billion per year in the U.S. with American companies in 40 states, but that's growing as we increase our production and our participation in U.S. aerospace," he said. "Airbus spends more in the U.S. than it does in any other country, including all of the European countries. As an international company, we're very proud of our relationship here in the U.S., so I get tired of hearing 'You're a French company; all those Seattle jobs went to France.' That's ridiculous."
McArtor said that about 46 percent of parts, components and systems used to build Airbus aircraft in 2004 came from America. He said that in 2003 Airbus invested more money in R&D than all the divisions of The Boeing Company combined. In part, he said that was another reason for increased American jobs because it led to manufacturing cutting-edge aircraft.
"Airbus is the largest export customer to the U.S. aerospace industry," he said. "In the last six years, plus or minus five or six percent, we've been delivering about 300 aircraft a year. We got where we are today through hard work, consistent investments, visionary design and by playing by the rules."
I agree. I'm embarassed that so many Americans are afraid of competition. Yeah, I know. Subsidies. Well, socialist countries have been "subsidizing" for decades, but that never stopped us before.
Competition is always a good thing, and Boeing needed a kick in the butt.
Airbus is state run, and state subsidized. They can operate at a loss, thus killing competition, because the EU taxpayers will be forced to pay the difference. The EU illegally forces foreign governments to purchase Airbus products by threatening sanctions, thus further undermining the "free" market.
This is NOT an unfair criticism of Airbus.
So you consider it "fair" competition when a state run, state subsidized company "competes" with us? That we just sit back and say "oh, gee, that's okay"?
Do you want this company to be providing materials for our national security?
Not fair, but typical. In the end, socialism always fails. Europe is fading. We have nothing to fear from them.
I am looking forward to that day. This A380 is just one step closer to thier failure.
I agree that taxpayer subsidies through socialism amounts to unfair competition. But I disagree that it has killed the competition-- Boeing continues to do well, especially over the last few weeks (Air India orders and several others). In fact it appears that Boeing will be taking back their #1 status soon, if not already.
In the long run, hopefully, it will turn out that the European taxpayer will be seen to be subsidizing about 140,000 US jobs, and Boeing will still come out on top.
US technology is alive and well-- evidenced by the fact that the lion's share of engine orders have gone to Engine Alliance.
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