Has Airbus lost the marketing war?

Question

Airbus have claerly got the upper hand with pilots and design and even they use more composite technology than Boeing could ever dream of, so why o why have they made such a mess of the past few weeks?

Answer 1

I think Air Bus is in trouble. Here is a quote I took from this article on Air Bus.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13130-2256673,00.html

AIRBUS will confirm tomorrow that it has lost the lead in aircraft orders to its rival Boeing after five years of dominance, The Times has learnt.

The beleaguered jet builder will collate its half-year order book at a sales meeting in Toulouse tomorrow and a yawning gap between the two companies will become apparent.

Airbus has definitive orders for 145 to 150 aircraft so far this year. In May it had 105 orders. Boeing has three times as many with 445 (358 in May).

In 2005 it had 1,055 orders compared with Boeing’s 1,002, the fifth consecutive year that the Toulouse-based company had beaten its American rival.

In nearly all aircraft categories, Airbus is lagging behind Boeing. For example, Airbus has no new orders for the A380 superjumbo, which has a list price of £170 million, but Boeing has 19 orders for its closest equivalent model, the 747-8, which has a list price of £150 million.

Scott Babka, an analyst for Morgan Stanley, said: “Part of the problem is that Airbus took a 150-plane order from China at the end of last year. That order has actually only started to come through from individual airlines this year. Arguably, Airbus shot itself in the foot trying to win last year’s order battle.”


Boeing has three hot selling planes in the 737NG, 777 and 787 while Airbus is only selling the A320 series in any appreciable numbers. What is airbus going to do?

Anothe problem is while the A380 is selling ok, no North American carriers are buying them. Also, airports have to go great lengths to get their airport ready for the A380..

Answer 2

Airbus does make a good airplane but there is a lot of negative publicity surrounding the company right now regarding the delay of the A380 as well as accusations the CEO sold off lots of stock of EADS before the stock plummeted.

It is just a bump in the road for Airbus right now. They will bounce back. Just look at Boeing. They had the refueling tanker incident as well as Phil Condit resigning and then Harry Stonecipher resigning after inappropriate actions with a female employee. Boeing rebounded from these incidents and so will Airbus.

Answer 3

It might look like it at this moment in time, but this can be considered as no more than a blip in the radar (no pun intended). I think that a more feasible way of looking at it is that Boeing have an upper hand in the media war at the moment. On the other hand, it is quite suspicious that there have been no reports of problems with the 787's development. Given that this is a cutting edge commercial jetliner supposedly made entirely of composite material, this could be seen as quite a surprise. I suspect once the A380's problems are ironed out, the tables will turn again in terms of media acceptance in Europe (unsurprisingly this is viewed somewhat differently in the USA). The only potential hiccup I can see is the additional problems that the A350 project is reportedly having.

Answer 4

A big problem Airbus is facing is indeed the setbacks with the A380, but even without that Airbus's A380 wasn't selling very hot. How do you market a plane that commercial airlines don't want? I don't think they have lost the war, but I do think that they have lost this battle.

Btw, your comment about composite technology is wrong. Boeing's 787 will feature a completely composite fuselage, something even Airbus hasn't done.

Answer 5

Well, I heard that Boeing now has more orders to fulfill than Airbus for the first time in a few years?

All these delays (specifically the A380) is ticking the airlines off, who then might be tempted to switch to Boeing.

Answer 6

Airbus has a very good reputation as an aircraft manufacturer and having worked on both airbus and boeing aircraft, in my opinion I would prefer airbus as the stronger competitor and once the A380 is released a new war will begin.

Answer 7

Airbus is facing probs cos there is delays in the A380 which its customers r threatening to cancel. But the A380 can be a gr8 success for Airbus. in reality Airbus can defeat Boeing sales for the B747-8
regds
AvSats

Answer 8

No airbus hasn;t lost the market war yet. With the arrival of A380, they will capture most of the market share than its rival Boeing. Boeing is batteling hard to come up with their small aircraft rather than bigger capacity, saying the future is for small airplanes.

Answer 9

Nope. once the Dems come into skill, our protection force will be downgraded. The warfare on Terror will end and we are able to not construct up our forces. we are about to slip from the full international skill to the fourth ranked (in the back of China, Russia, and Iran). that is actual the reason why we are able to not bypass to warfare in Georgia. we've already expended too many troops with the aid of warfare on Terror. otherwise, we will be enticing in Vietnam #2 (a.ok.a. Georgia).

Answer 10

its a huge scam for investors to make alot of money by delaying