Airbus upbeat on future; key buyer has concerns

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | June 19, 2007 | James Wallace

[skeptoid]

PARIS -- Flanked by his new management team, the co-chief executive of Airbus proclaimed here Tuesday that "Airbus is back, and fully back."

That upbeat message from Louis Gallois to a packed media briefing hall came one day after an Airbus order bonanza -- 219 firm orders and another 120 commitments that Airbus said will be firmed up soon.

And Airbus added to that impressive total Tuesday.

But it must still convince one of the world's most important aviation executives and its best customer that the A350 XWB, the new jet that Airbus is counting on to help even the score with The Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner, is all that Airbus claims it will be.

Steve Udvar-Hazy, founder, chairman and chief executive of International Lease Finance Corp., expressed reservations about a key design feature of the A350 XWB.

[skeptoid]

Airbus has insisted at the air show, and before, that it will not consider changing the fuselage of the A350 XWB.

But Hazy said Airbus is "seriously evaluating" the fuselage issue. He said changes could be made that would not delay the plane's entry into airline service in 2013 -- five years after the 787.

Udvar-Hazy still doesn't really like what they've got, but ......

Under no circumstances, Leahy said, will Airbus switch to one-piece composite barrels. He called that production method "old-fashioned."

High-stakes ?___________? contest.

[skeptoid]

PING

Since launching development of the 787 in April 2004, Boeing has won 634 firm orders from 45 customers. There could be many more to come this year. Jim Whitehurst, chief operating officer for Delta Airlines, said Delta might order as many as 125 Dreamliners this year. The figure includes options.

I wonder how these orders are secured ..... an actual deposit for a production slot, or some sort of guarantee?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Firm orders = money is paid to Boeing and a production slot is reserved.

Option orders = option to buy more planes at negotitated price, no money is paid and production slot is not reserved till order is transfered to Firm order.

While Boeing publically annouces when option orders take place, they don’t count them when talking about how many planes are on order. 634 planes are firm order planes.

Airbust tends to bundle firm and option orders together when they claim how many planes have been purchased and find creative ways to count each plane order multiple times to continue to claim they sell more planes than Boeing.

As an example. Many of the planes Airbust annouced orders for this week were actually ordered in 2005, but put on hold as their have been long delays with the A380 rollout and A350 final design. Back in 2005 Airbust counted these planes for their yearly sales totals, and in 2007 are counting the same plane again as a new order.

[skeptoid]

Rog

[rsflynn]

I will never fly US Air.