Airbus gets slammed by Virgin and USAir
It’s all bad news this week at Airbus. First, Virgin Atlantic announced that they will order as many as 43 Boeing 787 Dreamliners instead of the Airbus A350:
Branson — never at a loss for words — also called the A380 “a financial disaster”, suggesting Airbus will be hard-pressed to ever sell enough of the planes to turn a profit.
So, why so nasty? According to analyst Doug McVitie, “Branson definitely has a jaundiced view of Airbus and little faith in their promises now.
“He’d hoped to steal a march on British Airways with the A380, and in common with every other airline that ordered the A380, has seen his airline’s plans suffer,” McVitie said, adding Branson would be “making the same mistake twice” had Virgin cast its lot with Airbus once again on the A350 XWB.
The Boeing 787 will allow Virgin Atlantic to offer non-stop flights between the UK and Australia:
But Dreamliner is said to use 27 per cent less fuel than its nearest competitor, the Airbus A330-300, and makes non-stop flying between Australia and Britain viable for the first time.
Virgin Atlantic says a more direct route means fewer take-offs and landings, reduced aircraft noise and frees airports for other trips because of fewer connecting flights.
Following Virgin Atlantic’s decision, USAir then also decided to drop a USD 3.7 billion contract with Airbus to instead go with Boeing’s 787:
The A350 was redesigned last year after airlines told the manufacturer that its offering was not as good as Boeing’s 787. US Airways had been expected to upgrade to the A350XWB, as the new design is called, but it has instead shifted allegiance to Boeing.
Part of Airbus’s problem with the A350 is that it has only just left the drawing board, while Boeing will fly the first 787 later this year. Airlines are opting to buy an aircraft that is reality rather than one that still only exists on paper.
And the hits just keep coming – now workers at Airbus in France have downed their tools and stopped working in protest against the profit-sharing bonus:
The protests were sparked by a “derisory” proposal by management that this year’s profit-sharing bonus would amount to an average 5.0 euros (7.0 dollars), compared with between 1,200 and 1,800 euros last year, he said.
Airbus has been hit by several strikes and protests by French employees since it unveiled a radical restructuring plan at the end of February that includes 10,000 job cuts across Europe in the next four years.
The company reported an operating loss for 2006 of 572 million euros (752 million dollars) compared with an operating profit of 2.3 billion euros in 2005.
Big hat tip to Pajamas Media.
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