Airbus stumbles in its race with Boeing's Dreamliner

Airbus 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.

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Another prime example of how the EU-weenies can't do anything right.