Over the past week (and a bit) I’ve been quite interested in the 2007 Paris Airshow. But then again, for me it’s no different, as I’m an avid aviation fan (my aspiration is to become an aerospace engineer). But back to the topic, what I’ve noticed has startled me a bit: European commerical aircraft manufacturer, Airbus SAS, has taken the lead over arch rival Boeing in the race to bag the most orders.
About a year ago, Boeing announced their latest project, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a revolutionary twin-engine long-haul craft which incidentally is environmentally friendly. But what’s even more interesting with this craft, is the fact that it’s being built all over the world: for example, the fuselage in Taiwon, the wings in a different country, and all being assembled at Boeing’s final assembly plant in Everett, Washington. This is the first time in almost 10 years that the American aircraft manufacturer is to produce a whole new fleet of aircrsft (the last being the 777). At the beginning of this month (June) Boeing announced a dissapointing total of 13 orders for the craft, but after a few days at the Paris Airshow, announced a whopping total of around 300 orders!
Now, I’m sure you’ve heard the name A380. Maybe you’ve seen it in advertisment at an airport, or on the international carrier that you’ve recently flown. Look out Boeing – for the 747 “Jumbo-Jet” is no longer the King of the Skies anymore! From August 2007, a new giant is about to dominate the much coveted race: the Airbus A380
This is a quote from the official website, Airbus.com:
A harvest of orders for Airbus
20 June 2007
At the end of the first three days of the Paris Airshow, Airbus had issued more than 20 announcements bringing the grand total of orders for the first part of the week to 548 orders and commitments representing a global value of 75.7 billion US dollars at catalogue prices.
When Airbus launches a new aircraft, then their launch customer usually gets a 50% or so discount. However, since Airbus has been rather behind schedule in the release of this new bird, many of their (potential) customers have backed away. But one customer hasn’t been “scared” away by the company’s many set-backs, and has chosen to stay by Airbus’s side: Singapore Airlines. They will be the first to receive the A380, and then the rest of the (rather brave) customers will have their crafts delivered to them. The customers include: Qatar Airways (Doha, Qatar – which has an Airbus-only fleet), Virgin Atlantic Airways (UK), Emirates (Dubai, UAE), Quantas, Kingfisher Airlines and Etihad.
Life in Pixels 
Actually, the 787 was announced in late 2003. But in any case, Airbus tends to “store up” orders for big airshows. Boeing doesn’t. From a trending standpoint, the two are pretty close from a quantitative standpoint. However, if you do the math from an orders valuation standpoint, Boeing has been substantially higher this year and for the previous two full years. This is due to Boeing doing far better (70% market share or so) in the more valuable widebody market. Airbus having major customers (UPS, FedEx, Air Canada) cancel didn’t help. And this is just on list price — behind the scenes, Airbus has had to offer major rebates to existing customers to keep them from canceling.
I can’t wait to fly on a A380 someday…
Impressive stuff! It’s really cool that you are so passionate about aviation, I have a friend that also has aerospace engineering in mind, designing and manufacture of aircrafts? A career can’t get more exciting. Good luck in your projects. Hopefully soon I will ask u 4 a chance to test the global warming program.
Dude you really know your aeroplane stuff, don’t you? lol. I actually see that the Mighty Lord TurboNerd has been corrected! (Above) I didn’t think that possible…
Anyway It’s good to have a passion (Yeah, yours is Gigantic A380’s while mine is little mini Radio Control cars) Stick 2 it and go places!
Random man out!
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Good time. And ,