Turbulence around superjumbo brings grand European project down to earth

The Guardian ^ | 6/16/2006 | David Gow

[Paul Ross]

A month ago, the world's largest passenger plane, described by one over-excited spotter as "bloody enormous", made a triumphant debut at London's Heathrow. Now, in two days, the double-decker A380, which can carry 840 passengers, has fallen to earth. EADS, majority owner of the superjumbo's maker, Airbus, lost €5bn (£3.4bn) or a quarter of its market value this week.

[sgtbono2002]

Another Spruce goose, only this one is made of Tin.

[John Lenin]

Plane can't land in 99% of all airports. It's toast.

[Owl558]

Didn't these guys do an Enron-type sell-off of stock before the problems were announced? I have to assume that such a thing is against the law over there too.

Too many Europeans love to bash us over Enron. Lets see how they handle their own corporate criminals.

[downtownconservative]

The French, in their zeal to make the biggest, seems to have neglected the whole element of market and demand. Boeing, on the other hand, strives to produce what the market wants and needs.
As a follow-on, many major US airports are currently making huge investments in terminal facilities and runways to accomodate these Airbus behemeths (at great expense, cost passed on to all the airlines who will the pay the ports higher fees and airport leases and who will then pass the cost on to US consumers). I'm beginning to wonder just how prevalent this specific aircraft will be in airline operations worldwide.

[river rat]

AirBus = AirBust or AirBurst

Semper Fi

[Suzy Quzy]

I;ve siad before...WHO would want to fly with 800 people when there are so damn many CRAZIES???? This was sheer IDIOCY!!

[lesser_satan]

All I know is I'd much rather be on a Boeing aircraft than anything made in France.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I believe it's made of aluminium.

[kylaka]

In the industry, it's called tin, even though everybody knows it's aluminum.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Not aluminum. That's American English.

Over there it's aluminium.

[river rat]

Amen!

Semper Fi

[John Valentine]

I note that in spite of the oblique reference in the article title, there is not one word about the potentially fatal problem wih the A380 - its excessive turbulence at takeoff.

Delays in production are one thing. Operation delays at airport runways are quite another. Airports will have to reckon with reduced capacity for as long as the A380 flies, and the additional delay required for flights following an A380 off the runway virtually eliminate the advantage of its greater passenger carrying capacity.

This plane is looking more and more like a spruce goose.

Airbus is carefully noting that there have not been any cancellations of the A380.

Yet.

[gonzo]

Obligatory pic.................FRegards

[kylaka]

When you get right down to it, it's probably just recycled Coke or Pepsi cans. I never understood how the Brits came up with that aluminium thing. Is that how they spell it in their periodic table of elements too?

[jebeier]

Plane can't land in 99% of all airports. It's toast.

If there are 500 of these things flying around, airports will adjust and it won't be a problem.

But now Airbus has dramatically decreased their expected production schedule, so only about 50 aircraft will be produced before 2010. That might not be enough traffic to make it profitable for airports to make the investment necessary to handle this thing.

I expect European airports will be arm-twisted into making the changes, but this thing can't make money on short-haul point-to-point routes in Europe.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Yes.

Just another cross-the-ocean language thing.

[katana]

I heard a brief report on the radio this morning that the chairman or CEO of Airbus reputedly sold off most if not all of his and his children's stock in the company immediately before the recent announcements about problems with the new MDWW (Moby Dick With Wings).

This would lead to a major SEC investigation if it occurred here but who knows, if the story turns out true, how the Europeans will handle such a clear case of insider trading.

[VOA]

"Didn't these guys do an Enron-type sell-off of stock before the problems
were announced?"


Paul Harvey said this morning that the stock sold was the big boss's...
and that of his family members.
Just before the bad news (the truth) about Airbus' condition was to
be made public.

I'm sure it was just an unfortunate coincidence.
A French CEO would never stoop to practicing American-style corruption.
(end sarcasm)

Here's a link to CNN coverage:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/06/16/eads.airbus.reut/

[Owl558]

You're awesome, thanks!