The comparison with Airbus is as follows: Actual deliveries in 2017: Boeing: 763 / Airbus 718 Orders recorded in 2017: Boeing 912 / Airbus 1109 Value of 2017 orders: Boeing: $134.8 billion / Airbus $154 billion. Rgds
Production rates on the narrow-bodies is getting crazy. Boeing currently at 47 a month, and looking at going to 52. Airbus is looking to go to 60, but they have additional lines in Alabama and China. I recall back in early 90's when Boeing went to 30 and they were struggling. Boeing has a backlog of >4600 on the 737.
Can airports handle this kind of airplane volume? Not all places can just tack on more runways and gates for more planes. I think the annual increases in passenger travel will push demand for widebodies back up and narrows back down. More passengers per plane/gate.
Airbus delivered 15 A380s in 2017, and plans to hand over just five more than that over the next two years as part of a plan to slow production while it waits out some orders. Make that one order. "We're still talking to Emirates," Airbus chief salesman John Leahy said during the OEM's annual full-year orders and deliveries briefing January 15. "But quite honestly, they're probably the only one who has the ability right now in the marketplace to take a minimum of six a year for a period of 8-10 years, and then we can add some on top of that. "So quite honestly, if we can't work out a deal with Emirates, I think there is no choice but to shut down the program." Emirates, of course, is the de facto backbone of the A380 program. The airline has ordered 142 of the 317 sold, and taken delivery of 101 of the 222 built. Talks between Airbus and the airline about another large order have apparently stalled, leaving the program's future in doubt—and perhaps prompting Leahy's blunt assessment. While Leahy left little to the imagination, he also expressed confidence that the A380's "time will come." Congested mega-hubs that the airplane was built to serve aren't getting any less crowded, he says. "Every 15 years, air traffic doubles," Leahy said. "You're not going to double the number of flights going to Heathrow or Frankfurt or Charles de Gaulle or JFK or LAX or Hong Kong or Beijing. So if people want to fly, they need to fly in bigger aircraft." In the meantime, Airbus will throttle A380 production back to 12 in 2018 and eight in 2019. Six per year is the lowest it can go and still hold out hope. "We have a supply chain. My teams did a great job, and we came to the conclusion that we needed a minimum of six aircraft a year to maintain industrially an efficient production line," Airbus Commercial President Fabrice Bregier explained. "We will never produce white tails." Both Leahy and Bregier said that orders from other airlines are possible. But they suggested that only one airline's order really matters. As Bregier put it: "It is clear that Emirates is key for the long-term future of this program."
So basically the A380 only exists because of Emirates...seems like a bad business model. Rename it the E380 for Emirates 380 and see if it gets them to buy more...
I might rephrase it into how multiple airlines got on board originally. Then as the A380 got into operation only Emirates has continuing interest in it for more orders. Airbus is in a precarious situation since it is clear who they need orders from and Emirates knows they are the tail wagging this dog. Think of back stop residual value guarantees and other costly requests that force Airbus to either accept or make the politically unacceptable decision to shut down the program.
Emirates saves the A380 again. A dead horse being kept alive on life support. Reminds me of the 7478F UPS order. But I think in the end the 7478F might outlast the A380 . Both are now dinosaurs and by the time a market comes around for the A380 engines for a twin engine A380 sized aircraft with be available. This program is bleeding and represents government involvement in an aerospace program. We have seen our share on this side of the pond also. but mainly with military applications. Europeans keep writing checks for a rich middle east countries airline no less By the way, the A380 really has bad crosswind landing characteristics. Only aircraft I have seen that Also looked that bad in commercial service was the Shorts 360, although a box and a lot smaller
I think the 747 will outlast the A380 anway because of the Presidential VIP orders. The 747-8s will be ready by 2024 and if they have the same service life as the current VC-25s, they'll be around 34 years on top of that to 2058. I can't see any A380s in the air that far out. It's too expensive for any company to keep planes that large and old up in the air. Only governments can "afford" it...
The 747-8 is doing the Head-of-State duties with zero for the A380. The US is doing the process that will result in their -8s. The only one of the "usual suspects" that hasn't done theirs yet is Saudi Arabia. There are 2 or 3 green -8s parked as busted VIP orders.
Is that your unbiased opinion or where you born in Europe I will say this, Boeing has been building planes a lot longer than Airbus, and it shows. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Look at the 737 wich predates Airbus, it should have been replaced years ago but it has gone on and on. The widebody aircraft are what Boeing is better at, atleast for right now. The A380 is Airbuses 747, but built at the wrong time. Airbus is still playing catchup with the twin widebody aircraft.
I'm not particularly a fan of Airbus, but it is good having them as competition for Boeing to push them to do better (which they can and do imo). If they had no one to compete with and bought up other companies, then I could see them getting stagnant which is not good in the longrun.
A Canadian but more European influenced growing up. Britain and European goods are the home team. Plus Bombardier has teamed up with Airbus.
The large swept wing jets are most always someone's version of a Boeing planform; swept wing, strut-mounted engines, wing tip devices,etc. The manufacturing and marketing strategies are different most of the time and sometimes better.
What I do not like about the Airbus is how it can kill you, even if you supposedly know what you are doing. The one off Brazil is a perfect example of what can happen with an Airbus that would not have happened with a Boeing.
Got into an interesting discussion a while back with this used as an example. One of the thoughts is that Airbus made a lot of their sales focus in countries that were likely to have lesser trained pilots. As such, there may have been a consideration that the airplane would be safer by preventing the dumb pilot from doing stupid things. The Boeing philosophy is more about giving all the available control to the pilots in the expectation that they can find a way out. The now retired Chief Test Pilot for the 737NG was adamant that the hard over of the rudder on the US Air crash was not what happened. He railed against the NTSB imposing a solution that limited the rudder travel in case one ever needed it to save some situation.
Well that explains your bias... Teamed up???? Vice Versa... That's putting some spin on it.... ABus is taking over a basically bankrupt Bombardier.
Both Boeing and Airbus have their qualities. Right now it looks as if Airbus is leading in narrow body jets and Boeing wide body due to Airbus miscalculations. I will say this also from many years of personal experience. Bombardier CR200, CR700 and CR900 aircraft break at a much higher rate than Embraer E145, E175, E190 aircraft. Thank god I don't deal with them anymore. And the answer from Bombardier is all the airlines in question are not doing something right with MTX. It's not the aircrafts fault. Gotta love French Canadian salesmanship. No surprise to me that no one would buy their new aircraft until they gave them away thus starting a trade war.
When we were deep into the design of the 777 we were chided by "a company in Europe" for not having a computer controlled flight control system. Then there was an incident of total power failure in one of our competitor's airplanes that left it without control for several minutes. Forgive me if the facts are a bit skewed because it is almost 30 years ago. But, we received a memo that there would be cable controls maintained to critical flight surfaces, period. Flight crew overrides to computer systems also would be maintained. We also had strong suggestions by airline reps that the standard control column be retained in the777 with comments that, " I want to see what the other guy is doing with the controls." Working in the 777 program will always be the best time of my 45 year career at Boeing.
