Analysts: Airbus fumbled the fundamentals
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 25, 2006
If you’re going to bet the farm, place your wager on the horse that’s running the right direction. That seems to be the jist of this “Unsolicited Advice” column http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/23/unsolicited-advice-advertising-cx_meb_0524boeing.html from Forbes.
The writers, consultants Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak, argue that Airbus made a fundamental mistake with the A380 — it assumed that the airline industry’s hub-and-spoke model would persist into the future. Boeing, on the other hand, put its big money behing the 787, based on research that showed passengers hate flying through hubs and will choose point-to-point nonstops.
The 787 is winning, they argue, because Boeing is giving airlines a plane that will make customers happy.
Key Quote: “The ordeals of air travel after Sept. 11, 2001, make even short flights feel like long hauls. Did people really tell Airbus that they are perfectly happy to stand in more lines in exchange for a cocktail lounge? Airbus could not be reached for comment.”
Whenwhile, down in the bottom right-hand corner of the country, The Miami Herald http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/14670913.htm takes a look at the issues Miami International Airport is facing as it prepares for Lufthansa, Air France and Virgin Atlantic to start flying A380s to the city.
It’s a big jet, and the problems it causes tend to be large too.
Key Quote: “Air traffic controllers worry the A380 will cause gridlock in the air and on the ground. The aircraft is so large, it requires controllers to maintain more distance between it and other planes … ‘It’s going to really tie up the airfield,’ said Jim Marinitti, president of the local union of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association at MIA.”
