Stocks: (BA)
Airbus is late to market with its wide-body A350 jet. Boeing has been selling its competitive product, the 787 Dreamliner, for some time. Part of the reason that Airbus was late to market had to do with production problems. The more important issue was whether the Airbus parent. EADS, could come up with funding.
Airbus’s answer to being late to market is that Boeing’s work on the 787 was subsidized through tax breaks from the US government and Washington state along with contract with the defense department.
Do airline who will buy the planes care? Why should they. Either they get a good wide-body at at fair price or they don’t. Boeing was earlier to market and has an advantage. That’s the way it is.
Boeing currently has orders for 455 of its 787 plans in hand. There are about 100 orders for the A350 according to Airbus. That gives Boeing a pretty commanding lead. Airbus is currently making the point that its plan is easier to repair and has a wider cabin. Maybe.
But, the whining about who paid to build the planes isn’t going to sell a single one.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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