Despite Boeing taking the top honours at last month’s Dubai Airshow, scoring $101.5bn worth of orders compared to Airbus’s $40.4bn, the head of the European giant has claimed that his firm is in a far better position to deliver on its promises.
Airbus’ haul from the industry event included an order for 50 A380 superjumbo aircraft from Emirates, as well as another order 50 A350 jets from Etihad. The A350, a competitor to Boeing’s 787 ‘Dreamliner’ is expected to enter service next year.
Boeing, meanwhile, secured 259 orders and commitments for its 777X, which is not expected to enter service until the end of the decade.
“The biggest decision for me is Emirates taking another 50 A380s,” Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier told Arabian Business. “It confirms that their growth model is based around the A380 and when you compare that with Boeing, Boeing has announced big orders or intentions to order a new product which doesn’t exist and [which] they claim will enter service in 2020.
“I prefer to have orders that I can deliver in the coming years than orders I can deliver after 2020.”
The Airbus boss also denied that the A380 programme was in trouble, despite the fact that only Emirates has ordered any superjumbos this year. The Dubai airline now makes up more than half the total order book for the aircraft.
“What counts is whether we have orders or not,” Bregier said. “It is clear that the market for this very large aircraft is soft right now because many airlines don’t enjoy the growth of Emirates or Etihad or Qatar Airways… and so they tend to be a little bit shy when it comes to investing in big aircraft.”
“Having said that with this additional order we have probably got four years’ backlog, with around 25-30 aircraft to be delivered per year, which is excellent visibility.”
Bregier said that Airbus had no immediate plans to ‘stretch’ the A380, despite a suggestion from Emirates president Tim Clark that an even bigger aircraft would be welcome.
“No, I think the size of the aircraft is close enough,” he said. “At least for the next five to ten years. Of course, a stretch technically is always possible but I don’t think there is a market requirement for that.”
Airbus’ next big launch is the introduction of the A350, with the first set to be delivered to Qatar Airways in the second half of 2014. The firm will be hoping to avoid the troubles faced by Boeing’s 787, which had a hugely delayed launch and then suffered from a series of problems that led to the worldwide fleet being grounded for four months.
“I am confident that within, let’s say, a year, we will be able to enter service to deliver the aircraft to Qatar Airways and to ramp up production,” Bregier said.
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