European aircraft maker Airbus may need 15 years to catch up with and overtake US rival Boeing, chief executive Christian Streiff warned in an interview yesterday.
"This is such a long-term business," Streiff told the Financial Times after Airbus parent EADS announced further production delays to the development of the A380 superjumbo, a critical component in the competition with Boeing, as well as the prospect of heavy losses.
"We must catch up. In 15 years I hope we are ahead of Boeing again," he said.
Streiff said another high-profile Airbus venture, the A400M military plane, was also under pressure.
"The timetable is exactly on the edge. It is a tense situation with a number of suppliers internally. We are exactly on track but without any reserves," he said.
The co-chief executive of EADS, Thomas Enders, meanwhile told the Financial Times that the future of the mid-size A350 could be in question. Asked if the project might be endangered because of the current crisis at EADS, he said: "I cannot rule that out."
Of the difficulties plaguing the A380, Enders said: "The A380 timetable was ambitious from the start and perhaps unrealistic from today's perspective."
At the end of last month Boeing had received 666 firm aircraft orders against 222 for Airbus at the end of August, according to available figures. But Airbus is this year scheduled to deliver 430 planes to Boeing's 395.
Airbus management met on Wednesday with employees to discuss a major restructuring that would include job cuts to the manufacturer's 55,000-strong workforce.
With the A380 program now nearly two years behind schedule, EADS on Tuesday issued a profit warning and forecast a cash shortfall of US$8.0 billion.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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