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Airbus' Forgeard: 'We Are Not Over-producing'
Airbus CEO Noel Forgeard emphatically rejects the Boeing charge
that the company is building too many aircraft, depressing asset
values and harming the industry's long-term health. "Who's
overproducing, when Airbus' backlog is 57% of the world total,
and Boeing is producing slightly more aircraft than us? We're
consuming backlog at the same rate, and if anyone is over-producing
it's not us."
Chief commercial officer John Leahy points out that low lease
rates on A320s, compared with 737 New Generation models-cited
by Boeing as evidence of an Airbus glut-"are similar for
the same year and model." The Airbus figures are brought
down by relatively old A320s that were grounded because of the
Ansett failure.
Airbus is on track to log 300 orders this year, matching its deliveries,
Forgeard said here on Sunday-the day after Boeing Commercial Airplanes
CEO Alan Mulally reaffirmed that Boeing's deliveries for 2003
stand at 280 airplanes.
Today's [Monday's] Emirates announcement will be added to 156
orders that Airbus has taken since the beginning of the year.
Airbus estimates that it took two-thirds of the 100-seat-plus
orders signed this year-and 100% of the widebody orders, with
38 A330/A340 sales. For the rest of the year, "we expect
to remain not only stronger than the competition, but dominant."
Despite the industry crisis, says Forgeard, "Airbus remains
profitable and we continue to expand-so you can start to imagine
what we will achieve when we leave this downturn behind."
The A380's development bill is being paid from cash, Forgeard
says, and the program is going well. Six thousand engineers are
working on the project, and 60% of the 40,000 detailed drawings
have been released.
Airbus is about to launch a major cost-reduction program "to
protect our products and our talent pool," says Forgeard.
"We intend to reduce our costs by 1.5 billion euros per year
by 2006, "to protect our margins against a weak dollar. We
will assess and challenge our way of working, with clear targets
and overall direction.
By Bill Sweetman
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