Company Watch - Airbus

AirGuide Business, July 21, 2008

7/21/2008

Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said, despite prospects for weakening aircraft demand, there was no need to abandon plans to ramp up production of the A320 single-aisle aircraft family to 40 from 34 a month, though he plans to revisit the issue later this year. The boss of that jet program, Tom Williams, said Airbus aimed to assemble 36 A320s a month in Europe and four in China beginning in 2011, though he stressed that final assembly only represented 5 percent of the value chain. Airbus aimed to reach a maximum production rate of four aircraft a month for its delayed A380 superjumbo in 2-1/2 to 3 years, Williams said. Negotiations to sell a British Airbus plant at Filton to auto parts maker GKN were advanced, Airbus CEO Enders said. He was also confident of closing a deal to sell an Airbus plant in Germany at Laupheim to French defence electronics firm Thales. The sales are part of a push by Airbus to combat costs from plane delivery delays, surging prices of metals and other raw materials and a weak dollar that gives US rival Boeing an advantage. 7/18/2008

Plane orders worth more than USD$40 billion announced this week at the Farnborough air show may mark the start of a far slower end of year for Airbus, the plane maker's chief salesman said on Thursday. Airbus clinched firm orders for 247 aircraft at the event this week, taking its 2008 net orders for the year to 730. Leahy said the company was aiming at 850 for the full year. While Chinese and Gulf-based airlines are busy buying planes for growth, high oil prices and slowing economies have hurt aircraft demand from Europe and the United States. Leahy said companies that lease aircraft to airlines were still buying, too. 7/18/2008

Airbus and Boeing, the fierce industry rivals came to Farnborough neck and neck with net 2008 orders of 487 planes for Airbus and 475 for Boeing, and are now close to their targets for the whole year. Airbus and Boeing, between them, posted 444 firm orders worth $62 billion. That exceeded the forecasts of many who had said they would struggle to reach half the 600 firm deals seen at a similar showcase in Paris in 2007. A $40 billion spree by Gulf oil states prevented aircraft orders from going into freefall at this week's Farnborough Airshow but left little for Airbus and Boeing to scrap over for the rest of the year. Airbus, the planemaking unit of Europe aerospace group EADS squeezed out a handful of final orders on day four of a show that exposed a yawning divide between the industry's rich and poor as oil prices approach $150 a barrel. EADS shares rose 6.1 percent, while Boeing opened flat. 7/17/2008

Airbus emerged as the clear winner at the Farnborough Airshow on Thursday after racking up plane orders dwarfing the deals done by U.S. rival Boeing. An agreement to sell South American consortium Synergy Aerospace 10 aircraft worth $2.1 billion took Airbus' total orders so far at the weeklong show outside of London to 247 planes worth $38.7 billion at catalog prices. Airbus on Thursday held a self-congratulatory press conference, with the Toulouse, France-based company's chief salesman John Leahy saying the figures defied the "doom and gloom" that many industry watchers had expected to pervade this year's air show given soaring oil prices and the global credit crisis. Airbus now has a total of 730 firm orders for the year so far. 7/17/2008

Airbus posted firm orders of 247 planes worth $38 billion, bringing net orders so far this year to 734 aircraft. Sales chief John Leahy upped his forecast for 2008 orders to more than 850 aircraft from 700, but acknowledged this meant a slowdown in the rest of the year as airlines hoard cash. The European company sold 1,341 planes in 2007, which proved to be the climax of an unprecedented three-year industry bubble. Airbus is sticking to planned production hikes even if, in the worst case, it loses a third of its 6-year backlog. 7/17/2008

Airbus and Boeing and their engine suppliers are under increasing pressure to develop more fuel efficient products for airline customers struggling to cope with the high cost of kerosene resulting from record oil prices. Both jetmakers say their planes are being designed to make steep cuts in carbon emissions, but environmentalists say the aviation industry is not doing enough. At an aviation and environmental summit in Geneva earlier this year, Carson and Enders signed an agreement to work together on reducing the environmental impact of aviation. Earlier on Wednesday, Enders showed sympathy for the plight of fellow panelist Willie Walsh, head of British Airways, which said on Tuesday it may be facing the biggest crisis to hit the industry and announced it was cutting flights as the rising fuel bill threatens to wipe out its profits. 7/16/2008

Airbus said at the Farnborough Airshow state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines ordered eight 295-seat twin-engine Airbus A330-300s, a deal worth USD$1.6 billion at list prices for the wide-body aircraft. 7/15/2008

Airbus said Aviation Capital Group ordered at the Farnborough Airshow 23 A320 planes, a deal worth about USD$1.7 billion at list prices. 7/15/2008