The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industrie, on track to eclipse US rival Boeing in annual deliveries for the second straight year, is closing out this year on a flood of Asian orders and has snared the first firm expression of interest in its future A350.
Airbus, jointly owned by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co (EADS) and BAE Systems of Britain, has set its sights on between 315 and 320 deliveries this year and appears to be in good shape to beat Boeing, which is banking on 285 aircraft deliveries.
"2004 has so far been a very successful year for EADS and Airbus, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, and we expect more Airbus orders to be announced before the end of the year," EADS co-chief executives Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich said in a joint statement.
In a further piece of good news for the consortium, Airbus disclosed on Tuesday that Spanish airline Air Europa had signed the first letter of intent to purchase the Airbus A350, signalling its interest in 10 of the long-range, mid-size planes launched just 11 days ago.
Airbus has likewise just announced major orders from two Indian low-cost carriers while its chief executive, Noel Forgeard, recently disclosed that he had reached an accord with a Chinese company on the acquisition of five giant Airbus A380s.
The European consortium said earlier on Tuesday it had struck a deal to sell 30 A320 aircraft to Air Deccan of India.
John Leahy, Airbus chief commercial officer, said the US$1.8 billion agreement amounted to a firm order for 30 planes starting next year with an additional option for another 20 aircraft.
Airbus estimates that by 2023 the Asia-Pacific region should account for 31 percent of global air traffic against 25 percent at present. Europe by contrast is seen as stagnating at 32 percent during the same period, with North America slipping back from 33 to 26 percent.
Separately, Asia's top airline Japan Airlines (JAL) said yesterday it was seriously considering a purchase of the Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner, the next-generation jet on which the US aviation giant is staking its future.
"We have been considering buying the plane. We have had in-depth discussions and we are at the final stage of our consideration," JAL spokesman Tatsuo Yoshimura said.
His comment came after The Wall Street Journal reported that JAL may yesterday announce the selection of the Boeing 7E7 to replace as many as 58 aircraft in its fleet.
The airline has said it wants to replace its 36 aging Boeing 767s and 22 Airbus A300-600s by 2008 -- the same year that Boeing plans to introduce the 7E7, the newspaper said.
A JAL purchase would give a badly needed boost to the sluggish sales of the Dreamliner, a fuel-efficient jet which can hold 200 to 300 passengers.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS