It's More than All Good Cheer, Here:
Foregeard Says He's 'Poisoned' by GE

Foregeard: "I am poisoned" by Stonecipher comments Airbus chairman Noël Foregeard said he felt "poisoned" by an accusation by Boeing vice-chairman Harry Stonecipher that Airbus sabotaged GE's proposed merger with Honeywell.

Though the plan for Airbus's show-opener press conference Sunday was to tout its triumphs of the past year, remarks by Stonecipher in the June 17 edition of Le Monde lent a sour note to the event.
"Both the tone and content of [Stonecipher's] remarks take us back to the bad old days of McDonnell Douglas," Foregeard said, referring to Stonecipher's days as CEO of the former OEM before it merged with Boeing.

In the Le Monde interview, Stonecipher was asked about the state of the proposed merger deal. Noting that the deal is near dead, Stonecipher told the French newspaper, "it's not the airlines that opposed it, it's Airbus."

Foregeard denied that charge, saying that GE Chairman Jack Welch had met with him personally and had seen that GE's proposals address any Airbus concerns. A Show News source close to the negotiations agreed that Airbus was not involved in killing the deal.

Stonecipher's remarks, Foregeard said, are a relic of the past, out of step with the "normal" competitive relationship now evolving.

EU officials returning from a trade summit with the U.S. in Gothenburg, Sweden, this week assured Foregeard that U.S. officials were properly "skilled and dispassionate," and looking for an end to transatlantic aerospace industry conflict, he said.

he touted the company's success in fulfilling three goals: To offer a competitive slate of products in all large, commercial transport markets; to become an equal player in the market with Boeing; and to become an integrated company.

The Toulouse-based airframer has reached par with Boeing in the past year, he said, with 46% of the aircraft orders for 2001 and 52% of the dollar value for all orders. The company has been able to penetrate tough markets, he said, gaining 40% of North American orders and notching new customers such as British Airways and Qantas in the past year, and 30 new customers since 1998.
He claimed astounding success for the A380, noting that it has notched 62 firm orders since it was launched last year, and he predicted that the order book would reach the 100-airplane milestone by summer's end through a combination of orders from new customers and expanded orders from some who've already committed to the superjumbo.

Airbus will have selected more than half of the subcontractor participants in the program by July, Foregeard said. And several have become "risk-sharing partners" in the enterprise; ponying up $3.1 billion of the $10.7 billion Airbus is budgeting for project research and development.
Foregeard and his colleagues did take their own shots at Boeing projects. Foregeard mocked Stonecipher's doubt about the market for very large aircraft, saying, "if I had such a failure" as the recently abandoned 747X project, "I would share the same view."

And EVP Commercial Affairs John Leahy fired at Boeing's Sonic Cruiser: "I think it's great [public relations], but it's hard to imagine there will be a big market for an aircraft with 25% more fuel burn, increased noise and pollution in exchange for a marginal increase in speed."

The Airbus officials did say they see some softening in the market, but that, thus far, the slowdown has been a soft landing for Airbus. The effects are felt not so much in lack of orders, said Leahy, but rather in options not picked up. "In great times, 95% of options are picked up. In really bad times, it's 10%. And right now, we're seeing 50%."

The officials predict Airbus will notch 350 to 400 orders in 2001.