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Enviado: 11/4/2006 19:29Airbus stumbles in its race with Boeing's Dreamliner
By Don Phillips International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006
PARIS Airbus said Monday that it would look for improvements to the long-range A350 jet that the company cobbled together to compete with Boeing's new-generation 787 Dreamliner. It was a tacit acknowledgment that it might have underestimated the appeal of the new standard bearer that Boeing, its U.S. archrival, fashioned to pull farther ahead of Airbus in the market for widebody planes.
After receiving several complaints about the A350 from potential buyers, the Airbus chief executive, Gustav Humbert, said, "I want to note that Airbus listens to its customers."
"We are ready to make extra efforts to respond to their expectations," he told reporters Monday in Toulouse, France.
Humbert's comments, which come at a time when a key shareholder, BAE Systems in Britain, said that it planned to sell its 20 percent Airbus stake, effectively acknowledge that the Airbus widebody family is not keeping up with the significantly redesigned Boeing widebody standard bearer, and that at least the first round in a classic battle has gone to Boeing.
Airbus decided to stake its widebody future on the giant A380, the largest commercial jetliner ever built, while Boeing pointedly rejected a huge competing aircraft in favor of the midsize 787 Dreamliner, a new-generation twin-aisle aircraft with a fuselage made of composite material rather than aluminum. As the first three years of production quickly sold out, Airbus then introduced the A350 in 2004 to compete with the Dreamliner.
The A380, meanwhile, has been dogged with problems ranging from a customer demand that it redesign engines to make them quieter to problems with weight and fuel economy.
At first, the A350 was basically little more than a derivative of the current widebody A330 with a longer range but few major changes. But as the months have gone by, the A350 has been redesigned several times. There were new engines, new systems and greater use of lightweight composites, raising the development cost by billions.
The analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia, predicted in a January 2005 column that those moves would lead to even more changes, foreshadowing Monday's announcement.
"Was this always planned?" Aboulafia asked during an interview Monday. He suggested Airbus had to persuade its corporate parent, European Aeronautic Defense & Space, that big, expensive changes were inevitable despite the huge development costs they were already bearing for the A380. Now customers see that more needs to be done and are adding pressure for change.
Airbus had to "get the ball rolling," then gradually persuade EADS that there could be no competition without major changes to the A350 - at major cost, Aboulafia said.
Some important Airbus customers, including Singapore Airlines, have expressed concern that Airbus has not done enough to make the A350 competitive with the Dreamliner.
Airbus is already under pressure from the 787 and the popular widebody 777, complicated by slumping sales of its four-engine A340.
Chew Choon Seng, the chief executive of Singapore Airlines, told The Wall Street Journal that he believed that "having gone to the trouble of designing a new wing, tail, cockpit" and adding advanced new materials, Airbus "should have gone the whole hog and designed a new fuselage."
Singapore Airlines was expected in early May to announce a major order for widebody jetliners.
Chew's remarks came after Steven Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of International Lease Finance, said Airbus ought to widen the fuselage and redesign the wing on the A350.
Humbert of Airbus said, "Sales figures from our competitor of long-haul planes are starting to be better than ours, but this is a very recent development." He added, "All the same, we have 182 commitments for the A350, and Boeing sales benefit from the fact that they launched the 787 earlier."
France adds to EADS stake
James Kanter of the International Herald Tribune reported:
A French state-owned bank on Monday took a 2.25 percent stake in European Aeronautic Defense & Space, a surprise move that was the latest step in France's strategy of economic patriotism.
The French state already owns 15 percent of EADS, the French-German company that makes military hardware and Airbus passenger aircraft. By increasing its stake through the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, or CDC, the government could upset the traditional balance between French and German shareholdings in the military aerospace group.
The decision appears to contradict a statement last week by the French and German chief executives of EADS that recent share sales would primarily benefit shareholders by bolstering stock liquidity in the company.
The CDC is buying part of the 7.5 percent stake being sold by Lagardère, a French publishing company, which is cashing in on its EADS stock as it focuses on its core businesses. The German carmaker DaimlerChrysler already has sold a 7.5 percent stake in EADS to as yet unspecified buyers.
In a statement, the CDC said that by investing in EADS, France was showing its confidence in the "relevance of strategy of EADS as well in the quality of its management."
Despite the financial shake-up, and the enhanced role of France, the real balance of power within the company looks likely to be left untouched because of the corporate governance structure at EADS.
Lagardère would have to reduce its holdings of the overall capital of the company to below 6 percent, and DaimlerChrysler to below 12 percent, before either company lost its right to select executives or to make other important decisions, an EADS official said.
Even so, rivalries have generated tensions in the recent past. Last year, backed by President Jacques Chirac, France attempted to catapult a Frenchman into the chief executive's post. The bid failed, and the system of joint French and German chiefs was maintained.
But the infighting left EADS executives feeling uneasy.
The French government has been using investments by the CDC as part of a strategy of "economic patriotism" by signaling which companies and sectors it considers strategic and off-limits to hostile takeovers.
in http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/10/ ... airbus.php
By Don Phillips International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, APRIL 11, 2006
PARIS Airbus said Monday that it would look for improvements to the long-range A350 jet that the company cobbled together to compete with Boeing's new-generation 787 Dreamliner. It was a tacit acknowledgment that it might have underestimated the appeal of the new standard bearer that Boeing, its U.S. archrival, fashioned to pull farther ahead of Airbus in the market for widebody planes.
After receiving several complaints about the A350 from potential buyers, the Airbus chief executive, Gustav Humbert, said, "I want to note that Airbus listens to its customers."
"We are ready to make extra efforts to respond to their expectations," he told reporters Monday in Toulouse, France.
Humbert's comments, which come at a time when a key shareholder, BAE Systems in Britain, said that it planned to sell its 20 percent Airbus stake, effectively acknowledge that the Airbus widebody family is not keeping up with the significantly redesigned Boeing widebody standard bearer, and that at least the first round in a classic battle has gone to Boeing.
Airbus decided to stake its widebody future on the giant A380, the largest commercial jetliner ever built, while Boeing pointedly rejected a huge competing aircraft in favor of the midsize 787 Dreamliner, a new-generation twin-aisle aircraft with a fuselage made of composite material rather than aluminum. As the first three years of production quickly sold out, Airbus then introduced the A350 in 2004 to compete with the Dreamliner.
The A380, meanwhile, has been dogged with problems ranging from a customer demand that it redesign engines to make them quieter to problems with weight and fuel economy.
At first, the A350 was basically little more than a derivative of the current widebody A330 with a longer range but few major changes. But as the months have gone by, the A350 has been redesigned several times. There were new engines, new systems and greater use of lightweight composites, raising the development cost by billions.
The analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia, predicted in a January 2005 column that those moves would lead to even more changes, foreshadowing Monday's announcement.
"Was this always planned?" Aboulafia asked during an interview Monday. He suggested Airbus had to persuade its corporate parent, European Aeronautic Defense & Space, that big, expensive changes were inevitable despite the huge development costs they were already bearing for the A380. Now customers see that more needs to be done and are adding pressure for change.
Airbus had to "get the ball rolling," then gradually persuade EADS that there could be no competition without major changes to the A350 - at major cost, Aboulafia said.
Some important Airbus customers, including Singapore Airlines, have expressed concern that Airbus has not done enough to make the A350 competitive with the Dreamliner.
Airbus is already under pressure from the 787 and the popular widebody 777, complicated by slumping sales of its four-engine A340.
Chew Choon Seng, the chief executive of Singapore Airlines, told The Wall Street Journal that he believed that "having gone to the trouble of designing a new wing, tail, cockpit" and adding advanced new materials, Airbus "should have gone the whole hog and designed a new fuselage."
Singapore Airlines was expected in early May to announce a major order for widebody jetliners.
Chew's remarks came after Steven Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of International Lease Finance, said Airbus ought to widen the fuselage and redesign the wing on the A350.
Humbert of Airbus said, "Sales figures from our competitor of long-haul planes are starting to be better than ours, but this is a very recent development." He added, "All the same, we have 182 commitments for the A350, and Boeing sales benefit from the fact that they launched the 787 earlier."
France adds to EADS stake
James Kanter of the International Herald Tribune reported:
A French state-owned bank on Monday took a 2.25 percent stake in European Aeronautic Defense & Space, a surprise move that was the latest step in France's strategy of economic patriotism.
The French state already owns 15 percent of EADS, the French-German company that makes military hardware and Airbus passenger aircraft. By increasing its stake through the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, or CDC, the government could upset the traditional balance between French and German shareholdings in the military aerospace group.
The decision appears to contradict a statement last week by the French and German chief executives of EADS that recent share sales would primarily benefit shareholders by bolstering stock liquidity in the company.
The CDC is buying part of the 7.5 percent stake being sold by Lagardère, a French publishing company, which is cashing in on its EADS stock as it focuses on its core businesses. The German carmaker DaimlerChrysler already has sold a 7.5 percent stake in EADS to as yet unspecified buyers.
In a statement, the CDC said that by investing in EADS, France was showing its confidence in the "relevance of strategy of EADS as well in the quality of its management."
Despite the financial shake-up, and the enhanced role of France, the real balance of power within the company looks likely to be left untouched because of the corporate governance structure at EADS.
Lagardère would have to reduce its holdings of the overall capital of the company to below 6 percent, and DaimlerChrysler to below 12 percent, before either company lost its right to select executives or to make other important decisions, an EADS official said.
Even so, rivalries have generated tensions in the recent past. Last year, backed by President Jacques Chirac, France attempted to catapult a Frenchman into the chief executive's post. The bid failed, and the system of joint French and German chiefs was maintained.
But the infighting left EADS executives feeling uneasy.
The French government has been using investments by the CDC as part of a strategy of "economic patriotism" by signaling which companies and sectors it considers strategic and off-limits to hostile takeovers.
in http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/10/ ... airbus.php