"Beleaguered" Airbus

The beleaguered jet builder will collate its half-year order book at a sales meeting in Toulouse tomorrow and a yawning gap between the two companies will become apparent.

Airbus has definitive orders for 145 to 150 aircraft so far this year. In May it had 105 orders. Boeing has three times as many with 445 (358 in May).

The disparity in sales figures emphasises the difficulties facing Airbus, which announced production delays in its flagship A380 project last month.
Link to article

And lets add one more unfortunate kink to that already "beleaguered" Airbus status:

BIG investors in BAE Systems are urging the defence contractor to pursue legal action after production delays in Airbus drastically cut the value of BAE’s 20 per cent stake in the aircraft builder.
The shareholders are understood to be furious that BAE was not told of delays to Airbus’s A380 flagship project until the day before EADS, Airbus’s parent company, made a public announcement.
Link to article

Lets see here, with both EADS and Airbus bosses recently quitting from wiring schemes being bungled to the implementation of wing reinforcements to simply their being 'major screwups', one has to wonder at how many more woes there will be to the already "beleaguered" Airbus in its run against Boeing. Makes me wonder who really got headed off at the pass...




seekerof

I am guessing that the phrase used at the end of that post is in reference to a thread I made made previously? If so that thread was specifically in relation to the forthcoming single aisle tussle and nothing to do with the rest of Airbus' woes.

At least I see that Forgeard and Humbert have resigned, good. This was the very first thing that needed to happen for Airbus to *start* to repair the damage that has been done in recent months. If they had turned up at Farnborough with either of those two still in office they would have had no shred of credibility left. At least this shows a bit of positive thinking and a public ackowledgement that screw ups have occurred. Like an alcoholic, you have to admit there is a problem before you can solve it

The wing reinfocement programme, whilst not ideal, is at least perfectly sound and affects only a small number of aircraft so is a bit of a non story.

Why the triumphalist tone though seekerof? What have Airbus ever done to you?

After all, if I were petty and nationalistic I could have posted gleefully when senior heads rolled at Boeing, but I didn't. Likewise I did not mention, until now, that Boeing only this week faces around $500m in fines for late deliveries of 737 AEW&C variants to two customers, similar to what Airbus faces over the A380 delays, and yet none of this seems to get mentioned while the Airbus delays are posted up ad nauseum.

Its not a football game, 'my side' and 'your side'. Its a global business in which one player is emerging strongly from a spell in the doldrums while the other big player is currently in the doldrums itself. There is nothing to suggest that Airbus wont see a similar recovery and if they do it will be a good thing for the Airliner business overall. The world does not want or need a single big dominant Airliner manufacturer, or do you disagree 'as long as it is Boeing'?

edit - meant to post new thread, not a reply to this one

[edit on 21-7-2006 by waynos]

Haven't airbus been beating boeing something like 5 years in a row for the last 5 years?

This is the first "bad" year they have had only becuase the media turned a "non-story" into a major media frenzy with bad publicity about airbus which has put people temporarly off airbus but in the long run i think Airbus will gain the top position again.