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Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/97 AIRBUS AND BOEING OUTLINE THEIR STRATEGIES by Norbert Burgner Where is Airbus Industrie heading and how would Boeing react to the recently announced product offensive of the arch rival. These were some of the questions with which as background the airliner industry met at the 42nd Aérosalon. There was only little to be heard from Airbus Industrie at the show concerning the restructuring of the consortium. If at all, this topic would be commented on after Lionel Jospin's speech just prior to the end of the Aérosalon. Dr. Manfred Bischoff, Managing Director of Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG, appealed to the partner nations of the European aerospace industry to "subordinate national egoisms to the urgently needed enforcement of the competitiveness of this industry branch towards the overpowering US competitors". Concerning the current situation of the four-national Airbus consortium, Bischoff said that the future Airbus structure will need a central controlling authority. With this, however, the Dasa head said everything and nothing: A "central control authority" does not necessarily need to cause the integration of the Airbus production sites of the different partners. But this is exactly what's needed to enable the company to find the linear decision finding process. If this controlling authority would be the final goal of the Airbus restructuring, the current marketing and sales center in Toulouse, with its head Jean Pierson, could be easily renamed - with only very little chances for success. AI head Jean Pierson was unusually reserved concerning the restructuring, only saying that the evaluation of the various company parts, to be integrated into the new structure, continues. However, FLUG REVUE discovered that the activities of the working groups, that has been set up for the restructuring, was stopped the week before the Paris Airshow. Is this the end of the restructuring before it has even started? A British Aerospace manager said that, if there are no signals coming from the French side soon, some realities might change rather quick, leaving France outside in the end. With this threat, he was talking about a possible reorientation of the British, and maybe from the German partner, towards the USA, Aérospatiale head Yvs Michot being the addressee of this message. Michot was never really interested in the projected (by the former conservative government) privatization of the government concern Aérospatiale and the subsequent fusioning with Dassault, finally followed by the partial integration into the new single-entity Airbus-company. He has always been favoring some kind of holding, leaving the national production sites their independence. To align these ideas with the plans of the German and British partners will be the test for the European aircraft manufacture. The aerospace coordinator for the German government, Dr. Norbert Lammert, again made clear what he thinks about the Airbus restructuring: "We don't have unlimited time for this process of the European aerospace industry. Whomever wants European solutions, must know that he can't have national independence at the same time." A relaxed Boeing President Ron Woodard presented product information about the new 737 generation. Instead of the usual attacks at arch rival AI, he was as meek as a lamb. However, the intention was not so much to present a new aircraft family but to highlight the European benefit of the program, with Woodard pointing out that french CFM-Partner Snecma over the past five years made more than $2,5 billion in sales revenues on 737-related engine-deals and over the same period Rolls-Royce owes a business of $3,8 billion to the traditionally good relation to Boeing. The world's largest aircraft manufacturer, in front of the European public, obviously tried not to act as the competition-twisting and job-killing giant, as which Airbus Industrie likes to picture it. The other fusioning partner, McDonnell Douglas, showed a similar behavior. Evidently ordered to do so by the future owner, the former second largest aircraft manufacturer, at least on the civil sector, was practically non-existent at the Aérosalon. Still, there was enough time left in Le Bourget for aircraft: Airbus announced the commercial launch for the projected new A340 versions -500 and -600, along with an industrial launch of a business jet version of the A319. For the new A340-models an appropriate number of fixed orders is needed for a complete industrial launch. According to AI, the new A340 variants are satisfying the customer demands in the segment of the wide-body long-range airliners. Quoting the Boeing management, AI points out that "60 percent of all 747s were not ordered because of their capacity but because of their range." The first flight of a an A340-500/600 is earmarked for the fall of 2000. The new corporate jet version of the A319, the A319CJ, will carry only eight to 50 passengers, but in a luxurious atmosphere. Being in the price range of the two super long-range business jets Global Express and Gulfstream V ($35 million), the A319CJ, in direct competition to Boeing's 737BBJ, is designed to combine intercontinental range with a maximum of comfort. The jet features three times as much cabin area as conventional business jets and nine percent more floor space then the 737. At a speed of Mach 0.82, it is to cover distances of 11600 kilometers, offering its operator non-stop city connections, for example, from Paris to Los Angeles or Singapore. Airbus forecasts a potential in the category (including Global Express and GV) of 60 to 75 units per year, 24 of which in the airliner class. The A319CJ will be produced in the Dasa plant in Hamburg-Finkenwerder. The A319 will become a "CJ" in the final equipment phase, unless there are special customer wishes. This could be done at the Lufthansa Technik plant at the Hamburg Airport, not only being feasible because of LH's experience in this area but also because of the geographical closeness. From page 20 of FLUG REVUE 8/97 Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/97 Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated July 4, 1997 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany