Daily Airbus News

[john smith]

Airbus has been the subject of a daily article this week in the Wall
Street Journal.
Today's story reported yesterday's meeting with financial entities in
Europe. At this meeting Airbus disclosed that the breakeven number of
A380 aircraft now stands at 420 articles. This is up from the previous
forecast last year of 270 which superceded the original 250.
There are currently 159 orders for the A380 by 16 customers. It is
possible that some of these may be cancelled due to the two year delay
in first delivery.
Airbus forecasts the total orders for the A380 over the next 20 years to
be 751 while Boeing forecasts the total market for very large aircraft
(over 400 seats) to be 990. This number includes the A340 and B777.

[Peter Dohm]

"Richard Riley" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:07:01 GMT, john smith > wrote:
>
> >Airbus has been the subject of a daily article this week in the Wall
> >Street Journal.
> >Today's story reported yesterday's meeting with financial entities in
> >Europe. At this meeting Airbus disclosed that the breakeven number of
> >A380 aircraft now stands at 420 articles. This is up from the previous
> >forecast last year of 270 which superceded the original 250.
> >There are currently 159 orders for the A380 by 16 customers. It is
> >possible that some of these may be cancelled due to the two year delay
> >in first delivery.
> >Airbus forecasts the total orders for the A380 over the next 20 years to
> >be 751 while Boeing forecasts the total market for very large aircraft
> >(over 400 seats) to be 990. This number includes the A340 and B777.
>
> I think, technically speaking, that's what would be called a
> catastrophy.
>
> I hope the rumor about Boeing taking advantage of Airbus' weakness to
> build a 737 replacement is true.

I feel the same!

[Kingfish]

Richard Riley wrote:
> I think, technically speaking, that's what would be called a
> catastrophy.
>
> I hope the rumor about Boeing taking advantage of Airbus' weakness to
> build a 737 replacement is true.

I'm an aerospace analyst (but I play a doctor on TV) and read about
this stuff all day long from many US & international sources. The
outgoing CEO of Airbus, the guy who had the job for 3 months, had some
pretty harsh words concerning Airbus' plight right now. The delays in
the 380 program will cost Airbus several hundred million dollars in
late delivery penalties and are having a ripple effect with 2nd and 3rd
tier suppliers. They're into a major restructuring to turn things
around, but they admit they've lost the edge to Boeing.

As far as the single-aisle market, Airbus wouldn't have the resources
for a timely redesign of the A320 series if they do go ahead with the
A350XWB program, which is already 5-6 years behind the 787. The
narrowbody transports are a huge segment that they can't afford to lose
ground on. The 737 replacement has been in the works for a while now,
and is expected to debut in 2012 or thereabouts. Airbus would have to
have a new A320 to counter it or risk losing significant sales.