Four different looks at Boeing’s fight for sales

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, April 12, 2005

The big story in aviation today: Boeing’s back. Four major news organizations have stories on the topic today.

First, the Chicago Tribune steps up with an interesting profile on Airbus salesman-in-chief John Leahy, who’s been playing a little catch-up in the past few months, as Boeing scores wins with the 787:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0504130177apr13,1,3565155.story?coll=chi-techtopheds-hed

Then The New York Times jumps in, with a story about how Boeing’s saber-rattling on Airbus launch aid has been eclipsed by its recent sales success. (Interesting side note in this story — Leahy tells The Times that Airbus directors are meeting within the week to make a final decision on launching the A350.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/business/13boeing.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1113415235-cTXT+6djc+4feOzx9MCSQA

Last week, new Boeing sales chief Scott Carson said the company had been ignoring its Middle East customers. Today, Reuters reports that the company is pushing hard to land deals with Kuwait, Qatar and even Iraq:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48858-2005Apr13.html?nav=headlines

And finally, BusinessWeek’s Seattle-based correspondent Stan Holmes discusses how the home team has whoopped up on the opposition so far in 2005. His figures, it appears, include some commitments airlines have made for jets that haven’t been recorded as firm orders yet. In terms of firm orders, Airbus was ahead for the first quarter, based on my look at the announced deals:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2005/tc20050413_3753_tc024.htm?chan=db