Paris Air Show 2005

[EuroWheenie]

A fantastic year for both Airbus and Boeing, with both manufacturers seeing a large number of orders, and Airbus launching the revised A350. Also good to see ATR and Bombardier clocking up turboprop orders, and that the Jungle Queen is seeing it's fair share of the business too.

However, bit sad to see that Boeing have not sold any 787s, only orders for the 737 and 777. I didn't expect any 747 orders this side of a possible 747 Advanced launch, if it ever happens that is. Good to see that Airbus is receiving orders for its entire product range, albeit it looks as if the A340-300 is well and truly buried by the A350-900.

Orders and commitments as of 16JUN05:

Airbus 261
Qatar 60x A350 incl options
ALAFCO 12x A350
Jet Airways 10x A330
GECAS 10x A350
Tiger AIrways 8x A320
Air Cairo 6x A318
Kingfisher 5x A380
Kingfisher 5x A350-800
Kingfisher 5x A330-200
Air Caraibes 2x A330-300
Indigo Air 100X A320
TAM 20x A320
TAM 8x A350
InterJet 10 x A320

Boeing 148
Ryanair 5x B737-800
Qatar 20x B777-200
GECAS 20x B737NG
Jet Airways 6x B777-200LR
Jet Airways 4x B777-300ER
Jet AIrways 10x B737-800
ILFC 20x B737-700/800
ILFC 2x B777-200ER
ILFC 6x B777-300ER
Air Europa 18x B737-800
Westjet 2x B737-600
Alaska 35x B737-800

ATR 20
FinnComm 8x ATR42-500
CCM 6x ATR72-500
Air Caledonie 1x ATR72-500
Air Caledonie 2x ATR42-500
AirMadagascar 2xATR72-500
AirMadagascar 1xATR42-500


Embraer 25
Paramount 5x ERJ-170
GECAS 20x ERJ190/195

Bombardier 4
Flybe 4x Dash 8-Q400

 

[mzaharis]

Boeing has sold 260 or so 787s. They just don't "bunch up" their announcements at Paris.

It's just one week out of 52, as Boeing's execs say.

Quote from Randy Baseler, their chief salesguy:

"Seriously, that's not Boeing's way of doing things. We don't save up orders for air shows. Of course, if our customers want to use the Air Show as the venue for an order announcement, we'll support them.

But our thinking is that while these annual or biennial events get a big splash in the media, they make up just one week out of the year. A lot of business gets done during the other 51 weeks.

You might be interested to know that many announcements made with much fanfare at air shows never actually turn into firm airplane orders by year's end."


Having said that, I'm surprised that, given their total redesign in recent months, the A350 is enjoying some success. Guess they realized that a warmed-over A330 derivative wasn't enough, and went back to the drawing board. Seems like a good decision on their part.

BTW, where did you get the Paris scorecard?

 

[siucavflight]

Weenie,

You should look at the facts before posting. Boeing has already sold more of the 787 which no one has seen more than a picture of, while Airbus is having serious problems trying to get people to buy their over weight airplane.

 

[EuroWheenie]

Guys, let's not turn this into a slugfest, that was not my intention. I appreciate that my posting could have been misinterpreted, but what this thread is meant to cover is the Paris Air Show and orders received during that show. I am fully aware that Boeing has scored an impressive number of 787 sales. We all know that Airbus is using the Paris and Farnborough Air Shows to announce accumulated orders. One can hardly fault them for doing so, what being on home ground and all. I would venture the proposition that Boeing would do the exact same thing if there was a show of the same size and theme as Paris and Farnborough on US soil.

Regarding the 350, the -900 version seems to have moved from being a 787 to a 777 rival. It is also the -900 that is attracting the bulk of the orders. According to a recent copy of Flight International, Airbus is apparently positioning the -900 version to be a "777 Killer" (their words, not mine). At the same time, and this is of course something Airbus is not mentioning, the 340-300 is all but left to rot as a consequence of the 350-900 launch, while the 340-500 is left in the wake of the 777LR.
And there is also the small "issue" of launch aid to be resolved, with Airbus having delayed the "industrial" launch until later this year as they are seeking a fair amount of dosh to get the 350 developed.

All in all, a pretty interesting show this one.

Oh, the list was mailed to me by a mate, and was supposedly from the 16th. I cannot certify its correctness.

 

[bocefus]

Although the sound of distant thunder could be heard coming from Geneva, where a bitter dispute over government subsidies is being adjudicated by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), storm clouds of another kind gathered over the Paris air show this week for Airbus.

The European aeroplane-builder admitted that, for the first time in five years, its US rival had more new orders than it did. "Boeing's 2005 revival is impressive," said the Lex column in the Financial Times. "Lower costs, a reinvigorated sales team and the success of the mid-sized 787 have helped [Boeing] win 277 gross orders this year - a 59% market share. Airbus, hobbled by delays to its A350, the rival to Boeing's Dreamliner, has booked just 196. This is a reversal of the picture at the end of 2004, when Airbus had 57% of the total order backlog."

With a rare flyby of its new A380, the biggest passenger aircraft in the world, at the biannual Paris air show, "this was supposed to have been a triumphant week" for Airbus, noted the Philadelphia Inquirer 's Ken Dilanian.

"But ever since the A380's inaugural flight [in April], bad news has been building up for the Europeans," said Laurent Mauriac in the French daily Libération. "The delivery date of their giant aeroplane was put back by six months, which in turn pushed back the date of the first commercial flight ... to the end of 2006."

For some, the A380 epitomised the rivals' different approaches to the future of commercial aviation. "[Air bus] is approaching airline companies seeking to increase their fleet of large carriers capable of serving the world's principal airports (or hubs)," said Christine Ducros in Le Figaro . Boeing, by contrast, does "not believe in the development of this type of mass transport and is placing its future bets on mid-capacity aeroplanes that can fly from one secondary city to another", she said.

Fortune's Alex Taylor III and Julia Boorstin reckoned the Boeing strategy was more likely to succeed. The US company had "manoeuvred Airbus into a strategic cul-de-sac that could handicap the European consortium for years", they said. "The reason is that the A380 is beginning to look like the aviation equivalent of Moby-Dick. Just getting the 555-seat aeroplane off the ground, as Airbus did in late April, was an achievement ... Boeing [has] smartly avoided competing with Airbus's $12bn [£6.6bn] baby."

Part of the reason Airbus had fewer new orders for all its aircraft in 2005, said Dilanian in the Inquirer, was that Boeing's 787 would reach the market two years before its mid-sized A350 - the aeroplane that is the "subject of a legal wrangle in the WTO between the US and the EU over the govern ment subsidies that each company accuses the other of unfairly reaping".

On Monday, the first "skirmish in that case took place", said the Chicago Tribune in an editorial. "Both sides blocked the other from proceeding in the selection of judges for the WTO, delaying the whole thing for a month."

But EADS, the Franco- German aeronautical group of which Airbus is a subsidiary, "dare not push its case too strongly" for two reasons, said the Breaking Views column in the Wall Street Journal Europe : "It can't afford to give up too much ground on subsidies because it wants its long-range A350 ... to have a fighting chance to rival Boeing's 787 Dreamliner ...

"It also wants to make a significant break into the lucrative US defence market by bidding for a $20bn [£11bn] contract to support the US air force with refuelling tankers ... But EADS can't seriously compete with a trade dispute hanging over it," said Breaking Views.

The Chicago Tribune reckoned that the Americans should be more conciliatory as well. "The US strategy to take the case to the WTO contains risks," said the paper. "This promises to be time-consuming and expensive. The WTO can grant the winners the right to impose tariffs on the losers - in this case, that could be in the billions of dollars. A settlement would be better than a protracted WTO procedure - but the result in either case has to be a firm decision to cure these companies of their addiction to government largess."
Boeing's sales bring Airbus down to earth
[size=-1]The Guardian (UK) 06/16/05[/size]
author: Matt Keating
Copyright (C) 2005 The Guardian; Source: World Reporter

 

[mzaharis]

According to a recent copy of Flight International, Airbus is apparently positioning the -900 version to be a "777 Killer" (their words, not mine). At the same time, and this is of course something Airbus is not mentioning, the 340-300 is all but left to rot as a consequence of the 350-900 launch, while the 340-500 is left in the wake of the 777LR.

This is an interesting wrinkle for both companies' product lines. Boeing's stated intention is to develop a 737 replacement after fielding the 787. Does this change their strategy, forcing them to develop a 777 replacement sooner? Or do they cede the 777-200ER market (the one that the 350-900 is targeting) and concentrate on the 777-300, 300ER and 200LR markets, and develop a 737 replacement using 787 technology? Or are they going to try to make the 787-9 bigger, to counter the 350-900.

These are the questions that seem to keep the a.net guys up at nights.