Jet sales and real politik
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, January 12, 2006
You may recall that during the holidays, word came from Russia that Aeroflot was leaning toward an order for roughly two dozen 787s. (Here’s Flight International’s most-recent report on it http://www.flightinternational.com/Articles/2006/01/03/Navigation/177/203879/Aeroflot+leans+towards+Boeing+787+selection.html and here’s a link to my most-recent post on it. http://www.heraldnet.com/blogaerospace/index.cfm?SR=11 Scroll down to “Christmas Leftovers” on Dec. 27)
Key Quote (from Flight): “‘Choosing Boeing aircraft for the long-haul segment will preserve a balance in Aeroflot’s foreign-built fleet,’ says a senior official at the government’s industry and energy ministry. ‘Besides, the 787 appears to have a bit of an edge over the rival as a more advanced product.’ … EADS’ Russian division chief Vadim Vlasov, however, says the Airbus parent company is firmly standing behind its offer to Aeroflot. ‘We believe our proposal is no worse than that of Boeing and are prepared to prove it at any level,’ he says.”
“No worse,” eh? Brilliant marketing, that.
But a sharp-eyed FOB (Friend of Blog) reports there’s news today from France that Aeroflot has changed its mind.
The FOB says that according to French industry Web site Air et Cosmos: “Aeroflot has decided to order the A350 instead of the 787. The order will be announced during the press conference next week and will allow Airbus to be ‘more than just a little proud’ to announce that it met its goal of 200 orders in 2005.”
Continuing, he writes: “It says that in a ‘very politically charged environment,’ Aeroflot initially decided on the 787 as a reaction to the EU’s stance during the Russian/Ukrane natural gas crisis. But they ‘forgot’ how much the Russian aerospace industry was working with Airbus to build the A350.”
The Herald won’t spring for the 270 Euros for me to have an annual subscription to Air et Cosmos, so I haven’t read the whole story. (Besides, I know just enough French to read a wine label and insult someone’s date.) But the summary page shows that today’s lead story is that Airbus is set to announce it has topped 200 A350 orders “grâce à Aeroflot.”
Here’s a link to that, for all you francophones out there: http://www.aerospacemedia.com/acxml2/confidentiel.asp?Page=confidentiel
So once again I wonder whether Boeing should try to lure Henry Kissinger out of retirement and put him on retainer as a sales consultant. Stay tuned — if Air et Cosmos is right, we should know something next week.
