Boeing accuses Airbus of dumping
Fri "The Guardian" London
Boeing accuses Airbus of dumping
David Gow
Friday March 26, 2004
The Guardian
Boeing yesterday launched a frontal assault on Airbus's new 555-seater superjumbo, asserting that its European rival had "bet the farm" on the $11bn A380.
Randy Baseler, head of marketing for Boeing's commercial airplanes, claimed that Airbus would deliver so few A380s it could be unable to repay the $3.5bn in launch funds lent by governments.
Ridiculing Airbus's forecast global demand of 1,138 planes, he said demand was at most 320 and the European company would find it impossible to break even on sales of 250 A380s.
His remarks, in London, indicate that the dogfight between the rival plane-makers over future aviation trends has escalated since Airbus overtook Boeing in terms of aircraft deliveries last year.
The Europeans are banking on soaring demand for non-stop flights on routes such as London and Sydney while Boeing, which is launching its 200/250-seater 7E7 Dreamliner later this year, has staked its future on shorter point-to-point direct services.
Mr Baseler, armed with a 80-page rebuttal of Airbus's market analysis, claimed that the Europeans had won its first 129 orders for the A380 by offering a 40% discount on the $230m list-price to airlines such as Singapore Airlines.
The 7E7, likely to be powered by Rolls-Royce and GE engines, has a list price of $120m and is due to enter service in 2008, with 50 airlines, including British Airways and Virgin, said to be interested.
Airbus, which sees the first A380 fly with Singapore in 2006, attacked Mr Baseler's comments as "ridiculous" and "absolute rubbish."
"The suggestion we are going around the world trying to dump this aircraft in order to get it off the ground is is nonsense," an insider said. "The price is up to $260m now."
Last week Iain Gray, Airbus UK managing director, said the A380 was the most successful launch in Airbus history, with plans to increase production to 50 aircraft a year. At least one new customer is expected this year.
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