Airbus looks to Emirates to save A350

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 8, 2005

The Sunday Times of London says the Middle Eastern carrier will be the launch customer for Airbus’s proposed counter to the 787, and will announce a 50-plane order at Paris.

Here’s a link:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-1602309,00.html

But an Emirates spokesman downplayed the notion, saying “We don’t have anything to announce now and we don’t know when we will have anything to announce.”

Here’s a link to that:

http://www.zeenews.com/links/articles.asp?ssid=53&aid=216135&newsid=BUS

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, the former mom in tennis shoes turned Senator from Boeing, was talking last week about the need to block the A350, but analyst Richard Aboulafia raised an interesting point with me: It might be in Boeing’s best interest if Emirates DOES buy A350s, because it would lock Airbus into building a sub-standard competitor to the 787 for the next decade or so. Hmm…