Dav8tor
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2002
- Posts
- 131
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
JetBlue Snubs U.S. Aircraft Companies for the French
When JetBlue Airways Corp. recently announced that it had ordered 65 A320 aircraft from the French Airbus company, with options for 50 more, a lot of the boycott-France folks got up in arms - none more so than a former Capitol Hill staffer who helped write the FAA rules, which were designed to discourage such foreign airliner purchases in the first place.
JetBlue’s newly ordered aircraft will be delivered starting in 2004. In addition to the 41 aircraft in service, JetBlue already had 46 A320s on order. With the latest French order, JetBlue’s fleet could grow to as many as 202 French-made A320 jetliners by 2012.
Here is what Carl Biersack is telling NewsMax and anyone else who will listen:
"I was one of the congressional staffers who wrote the FAA Reauthorization that changed the rules at the slot-controlled airports. One of the conditions I put in the law was that the allocation of the slots would be based on the maximum contribution to America’s aviation system/infrastructure.
"This was meant to ensure that slots would go from those controlled airports to cities where there would be lots of passengers or to hubs because they will connect to many other cities, and, finally, it was meant to require carriers to buy American airplanes.
Clinton Again
"When one writes laws - especially authorization laws - one cannot be as specific as appropriators can where they make earmarks. Well, Clinton’s DOT [Department of Transportation chief] Rodney Slater allowed JetBlue to get the slots - knowing they were going to buy French jets.
"A number of my fellow staffers - who worked on the law and had left the Hill - complained that the JetBlue decision was not within the spirit of the law: It was neither going to maximize passenger benefits nor buy American. But as we all know, the fidelity of the Clinton administration to the letter of the law was just not possible.
"Our complaints fell on deaf ears. Here is just another illustration of the Clinton’s ‘empowering’ our enemies by inaction or insufficient action.”
JetBlue, a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline that launched operations in February 2000, features roomy leather seats equipped with free live satellite television. Its travel agents work from their home computers.
The airline is doing well in a notoriously slow market, but not well enough to routinely rub its French connection in the face of an American public still stinging from that country’s antics before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom.
For its part, Airbus is careful to point out in its press releases that each order for its aircraft means a boost to the U.S. economy, as Airbus spends some 40 percent of its procurement budget with hundreds of suppliers in more than 40 U.S. states. "In 2002 alone, Airbus spent $5.5 billion in U.S. contracts - more than it spent in any other country. Using U.S. Department of Commerce figures, that dollar amount translates into Airbus support of 120,000 American jobs.”
Airbus prefers to tout not its its made-in-France airframe but its plans to build the world’s largest jetliner: a double-decker that will hold 555 passengers, 35 percent more than Boeing’s 33-year-old 747.
Meanwhile, Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard sits in his top-floor office by the airport in Toulouse, France, watching Europe’s largest building taking shape across the runway. The new factory is the venue where the giant passenger jet will be constructed, thanks in generous measure to JetBlue.
Forgeard feels warmly toward his big customer across the Atlantic:
"As JetBlue continues to conquer the odds, their repeated choice of Airbus aircraft proves that efficiency on all levels, including equipment and operations, is a must for an airline’s continuing health. With this [latest] order, JetBlue demonstrates that with the right people, the right product and the right cost structure, airlines can grow, even in this current, challenging, environment.”
Not feeling so warmly are upset Americans who are sending e-mails to JetBlue voicing concern about its cozy relationship with Airbus.
One example: "Has anyone told JetBlue that there is an American company located over there in Everett, Washington that makes perfectly good airplanes?”
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Corporate Scandals
Editor's note:
France Hates America and Is in Bed With Saddam - Boycott Cowardly France! Click Here Now!
Printer Friendly Version
Reprint Information
JetBlue Snubs U.S. Aircraft Companies for the French
When JetBlue Airways Corp. recently announced that it had ordered 65 A320 aircraft from the French Airbus company, with options for 50 more, a lot of the boycott-France folks got up in arms - none more so than a former Capitol Hill staffer who helped write the FAA rules, which were designed to discourage such foreign airliner purchases in the first place.
JetBlue’s newly ordered aircraft will be delivered starting in 2004. In addition to the 41 aircraft in service, JetBlue already had 46 A320s on order. With the latest French order, JetBlue’s fleet could grow to as many as 202 French-made A320 jetliners by 2012.
Here is what Carl Biersack is telling NewsMax and anyone else who will listen:
"I was one of the congressional staffers who wrote the FAA Reauthorization that changed the rules at the slot-controlled airports. One of the conditions I put in the law was that the allocation of the slots would be based on the maximum contribution to America’s aviation system/infrastructure.
"This was meant to ensure that slots would go from those controlled airports to cities where there would be lots of passengers or to hubs because they will connect to many other cities, and, finally, it was meant to require carriers to buy American airplanes.
Clinton Again
"When one writes laws - especially authorization laws - one cannot be as specific as appropriators can where they make earmarks. Well, Clinton’s DOT [Department of Transportation chief] Rodney Slater allowed JetBlue to get the slots - knowing they were going to buy French jets.
"A number of my fellow staffers - who worked on the law and had left the Hill - complained that the JetBlue decision was not within the spirit of the law: It was neither going to maximize passenger benefits nor buy American. But as we all know, the fidelity of the Clinton administration to the letter of the law was just not possible.
"Our complaints fell on deaf ears. Here is just another illustration of the Clinton’s ‘empowering’ our enemies by inaction or insufficient action.”
JetBlue, a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline that launched operations in February 2000, features roomy leather seats equipped with free live satellite television. Its travel agents work from their home computers.
The airline is doing well in a notoriously slow market, but not well enough to routinely rub its French connection in the face of an American public still stinging from that country’s antics before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom.
For its part, Airbus is careful to point out in its press releases that each order for its aircraft means a boost to the U.S. economy, as Airbus spends some 40 percent of its procurement budget with hundreds of suppliers in more than 40 U.S. states. "In 2002 alone, Airbus spent $5.5 billion in U.S. contracts - more than it spent in any other country. Using U.S. Department of Commerce figures, that dollar amount translates into Airbus support of 120,000 American jobs.”
Airbus prefers to tout not its its made-in-France airframe but its plans to build the world’s largest jetliner: a double-decker that will hold 555 passengers, 35 percent more than Boeing’s 33-year-old 747.
Meanwhile, Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard sits in his top-floor office by the airport in Toulouse, France, watching Europe’s largest building taking shape across the runway. The new factory is the venue where the giant passenger jet will be constructed, thanks in generous measure to JetBlue.
Forgeard feels warmly toward his big customer across the Atlantic:
"As JetBlue continues to conquer the odds, their repeated choice of Airbus aircraft proves that efficiency on all levels, including equipment and operations, is a must for an airline’s continuing health. With this [latest] order, JetBlue demonstrates that with the right people, the right product and the right cost structure, airlines can grow, even in this current, challenging, environment.”
Not feeling so warmly are upset Americans who are sending e-mails to JetBlue voicing concern about its cozy relationship with Airbus.
One example: "Has anyone told JetBlue that there is an American company located over there in Everett, Washington that makes perfectly good airplanes?”
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Corporate Scandals
Editor's note:
France Hates America and Is in Bed With Saddam - Boycott Cowardly France! Click Here Now!
Printer Friendly Version
Reprint Information
