Airbus “will be gentle but firm” in the Transatlantic Trade Dispute
“We congratulate our colleagues at Boeing for their achievements,” Airbus president and CEO Noel Forgeard said here on Tuesday morning about Boeing’s recent string of victories. “We hope they enjoy it, because it’s over.”
Forgeard went on to predict 20 to 30 more orders for the new A350 by the end of the show, and backed up chief commercial officer John Leahy’s prediction of 200-plus firm commitments for the new aircraft by the end of the year. The delay to the industrial launch of the A350, which EADS has pushed back to the end of September, does not reflect uncertainty about the program, he said, but is intended to give U.S. and European negotiators time to avoid a transatlantic trade war. “We don’t need money from governments,” Forgeard stated. “We will make the A350 — that’s not in the debate.”
While Boeing’s sales have been swelled by the success of the 787, Forgeard pointed out that the companies ran neck-and-neck this year in sales of current production aircraft — and promised that Airbus would boost production in 2006 to its highest level ever. “We will build at least 360 aircraft this year, 40 more than in 2004,” he said. “We’ll increase by at least another 10% next year and pass the 400 mark.” Figures show that the company is going higher than that, boosting single-aisle production to 30 aircraft a month in March 2006 and twin-aisle deliveries to eight a month, for a total output that could be close to 450 aircraft.
Airbus and EADS “will be gentle but firm” in the transatlantic trade dispute. Government relations vp Philippe Delmas says that the company has laid down several conditions for an acceptable deal: the inclusion of NASA and Pentagon aid to Boeing, as well as local tax breaks; the inclusion of indirect subsidies, including an estimated $1.5 billion in Japanese support for the 787; the immediate phaseout of export tax breaks; and the application of any new deal equally to the 787 and A350. —Bill Sweetman
