Airbus Puts A380 Freighter on Hold As Orders Dry Up

Airbus puts A380 freighter on hold as orders dry up

From The Times March 02, 2007 David Robertson, Business Correspondent http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article1459020.ece

Airbus, the pan-European aircraft manufacturer, axed its A380 freighter programme yesterday, just one day after it revealed a restructuring plan that will lead to 10,000 job cuts.

The freighter version of Airbus’s new double-decker aircraft has been shedding orders since last year and work on the project has been put on hold. Airbus insisted that it could be reactivated, but the freighter is effectively without customers.

Last week United Parcel Service (UPS) postponed its order for ten A380Fs, worth nearly $3 billion (£1.53 billion) at list prices, and its contract allows for cancellation at any time. Analysts said yesterday that this was now inevitable.

Federal Express ditched its ten orders last November and the International Lease Finance Corporation followed a month later.

Ending work on the freighter will allow Airbus to divert resources and engineers to the passenger version of the aircraft, the first of which is due to be delivered to Singapore Air-lines later this year.

The two-year delay to the A380, plus the weak value of the dollar, has thrown Airbus into a crisis. The company attempted to regain the initiative on Wednesday with a restructuring plan that will cut costs by €2 billion (£1.35 billion) a year.

However, French and German trades unions are in uproar over the plans to cut jobs and sell or outsource factories. Workers at three sites in Germany walked out for a second day yesterday and union leaders in France will meet today to discuss a nationwide strike.

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Friday March 2, 2007 http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1172789305.html Reuters

Boeing Orders Rise In February March 1, 2007

Boeing won orders for 51 commercial jets in February, worth about USD$8 billion at list prices, doubling its tally from the same month last year and making up for a relatively small number in January.

Boeing, which won back the title of biggest-selling planemaker from Airbus last year, got a huge boost in the month from a large freighter order from United Parcel Service and more sales of its popular 787 Dreamliner.

The Chicago-based company continues to dominate the lucrative market for widebody aircraft, but is trailing its European rival in terms of overall orders so far this year.

Boeing has orders for 64 aircraft so far this year, according to its web site, while Airbus -- owned by European aerospace company EADS -- took in orders for 90 planes in January alone. It has not reported figures for February.

Most of Boeing's 51 new orders in February were widebodies. It sold 33 of the 767 models, most of them freighters for UPS, which is still undecided about whether to go ahead with its order for the freighter version of Airbus's A380 superjumbo.

Boeing also sold four 777s and 12 of its 787s, the new carbon and titanium mid-sized jet scheduled to enter service next year. It sold only two 737s, the single-aisle workhorse of many domestic and regional airlines.

The value of its February orders was about USD$8 billion, up strongly from January's figure of about USD$2.2 billion.

In February last year, Boeing took orders for 25 planes, worth about USD$2 billion.

Boeing's order value for January was roughly the same as a year earlier, but it was dwarfed by orders in December, when the company sold USD$22 billion worth of commercial aircraft.

(Reuters)