Since I’m relatively new to the aerospace beat, I asked industry analyst Paul Nisbet to help me decode notes from this morning’s press conference on Airbus’s 2006 year-end results.
2006 orders:
Airbus president Louis Gallois put a positive spin on 2006, saying the year was “really pretty good” despite coming in second to Boeing in commercial jet orders and losing billions in profits over its A380 delays.
Nisbet’s bottom line: “They didn’t make any money.”
787 versus A350 XWB:
Airbus sales guru John Leahy said he begrudgingly will give Boeing its 400-plus order lead on the market with its Dreamliner but felt confident that Airbus’s A350 XWB will catch up.
Nisbet’s bottom line: “When are they going to get started?”
Freudian slip? Moments after chiding the media for “overplaying” the launch of Boeing’s 747-8 Intercontinental, Leahy pointed out that Airbus received a vote of customer confidence by picking up repeat orders in 2006 on its thrice delayed A380. Leahy listed Lufthansa as one of those confidence-boosting customers. Perhaps the 747-8 weighs a little more heavily on Leahy’s mind than he would like to admit. The German carrier served as the Intercontinental’s launch customer, leading Leahy to correct himself and say he wishes that Lufthansa would order Airbus’s superjumbo jet.
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