Company Watch - Airbus.

For more company news, data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm Jul 17, 2006

Airbus will expand its offering of two new mid-sized planes to three in order to catch up with rival Boeing, industry sources said on Friday. Worried that its pair of proposed A350 models aimed at competing with the Boeing 787 due in 2008 will do little to slow sales of Boeing's larger 777, Airbus will add a third, larger model. "They are definitely looking at doing three," one industry source said, adding that the new planes were likely to be named the A350-800, A350-900 and A350-1,000. There was a chance Airbus could go with the name A370, he added. A second source confirmed the story, saying: "It is designed to take on both the 787 and 777." Boeing says the market for the 787, 777 and A350 will be the industry's most lucrative over the next two decades. Jul 14, 2006

Analysts say development of the A350 will cost USD$10 billion, a figure likely to escalate a clash between the European Union and Washington, which have filed complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) about government support for Boeing and Airbus, respectively. Airbus initially estimated the new model would cost no more than EUR4 billion (USD$5.06 billion), and made clear that it would again ask Britain, France, Germany and Spain for loans to fund a third of the development. Jul 14, 2006

Airbus has wrestled for more than a year with the design of a model named the A350 which is now likely to be shelved, some analysts believe, as the planemaker responds to calls from would-be buyers for a wider fuselage and other advances. The year's biggest air show opens near London next week, with all eyes on planemaker Airbus and its secretive plans for a new, mid-sized plane to challenge resurgent rival Boeing. The two planemakers waged a feisty battle at the biennial event last time as the biggest winners in USD$21 billion worth of business deals announced. This year, Airbus faces mounting pressure to reveal its mystery plane, which analysts say could cost USD$10 billion to build. Industry sources and analysts say Airbus's top salesman, John Leahy, will be working hard to sell the concept and could have deals to announce at the Farnborough air show, which opens on Monday. Jul 12, 2006

Airbus's mid-sized A350 model, which is being redesigned to compete with Boeing's bigger-selling 787, had to be a superior aircraft, Tom Enders told a briefing restricted to Stuttgart-based journalists late on Tuesday. The co-head of European aerospace firm EADS admitted its Airbus unit had underestimated Boeing and said its priority was to fix problems at Airbus, which is trailing its US competitor in aircraft sales. He added that Airbus was not under time pressure and said the timing of a decision on the design of the A350 was not bound by next week's Farnborough Air Show in Britain, a showcase for the industry. Former joint EADS Chief Executive Noel Forgeard had said at the Berlin Air Show in May that decisions would be made on the slow-selling A350 by Farnborough. Jul 12, 2006

Airbus new aircraft sales picked up a bit last month as the embattled plane-maker reported orders for 12 aircraft in June, up from six in May and nine in April. All were for A320 family jets comprising four A319s, six A320s and two A318s. The new commitments brought total first-half sales to 117, comprising 96 narrowbodies and 21 widebodies. Airbus sold just one widebody in the second quarter and that was to a nonairline. Jul 11, 2006

Airbus confirms new CEO Streiff. Airbus's shareholder committee officially confirmed Christian Streiff as president and CEO Friday as the aircraft manufacturer began to move forward following last month's A380 program setback and its politically contentious fallout, which led to the resignation of former CEO Gustav Humbert. Jul 10, 2006

Airbus has been lagging behind rival Boeing for some months as airlines wait for a re-launch of the long-range twinjet A350, which has been heavily outsold by the Boeing 787. Airbus received orders for just 21 of these twin-aisle models during the first half, including 13 for the A350 which is being re-designed, meaning the planemaker may be forced to renegotiate these deals. Airbus hopes to launch a new version of the A350 that also addresses slow sales of the four-engine A340 before next week's Farnborough Air Show. It has not sold any of its wide-body aircraft -- the A330/340/350 family nor the twice-delayed A380 superjumbo -- since March, according to Airbus figures. Jul 10, 2006

Airbus orders dropped by more than half in the first six months of the year as confusion over its product range robbed the company of wide-body sales throughout the second quarter, new figures showed on Monday. The European planemaker, which is reeling from production difficulties and a recent management shake-up, said it had sold 117 aircraft between January and June, down from 276 in the same period last year. Deliveries, however, rose to 219 planes from 189. Jul 10, 2006

Airbus plans to relaunch its A320 passenger jet, with the new versions becoming deliverable from 2009 according to a German magazine. Airbus said operating costs of the new jets with the working title A320 Enhanced would be five percent below those of the current A320s, the Wirtschaftswoche magazine said in an advance copy of its July 10 edition. This would be achieved through lower air resistance, reduced weight and more efficient engines. Airbus, which is majority owned by European aircraft and defense group EADS, was also planning innovations to the A320s due to be delivered from next year, the report said. The company last month shocked the aerospace industry by disclosing additional six month delays in the delivery of superjumbo A380 aircraft. Airbus is locked in a fierce battle for airline customers with US rival Boeing. Jul 10, 2006

Boeing leads in orders for first half of 2006, Airbus woes mounting. Boeing booked more than four times as many orders as Airbus in the first half of 2006, although Airbus delivered more planes. The poor sales figures add to Airbus's concerns over delivery delays, a class-action lawsuit and reports that a deadly accident at a Russian airport could be linked to faulty brakes made by the company. Jul 11, 2006

Emirates indicated that the airline has no plans at this point to place a Dreamliner order at the show but said it may order other types. There has been some speculation that it may be a customer for the 747-8F because it switched its order for two A380Fs to the passenger version. It currently leases 747-400Fs. Jul 14, 2006

Singapore Airlines is understood at the Farnborough show to be studying the developments as part of its RFP for up to 15 aircraft to replace its A340-500s on the New York-Singapore and Los Angeles-Singapore routes. Jul 16, 2006

China Southern Airlines confirmed it will take 50 A320s as its allocation from the Chinese government's order of 150 A320 family aircraft booked in December, which enabled Airbus to pip Boeing in the order stakes. The third carrier to announce its allotment, China Southern's order is valued at $3.3 billion. It will take delivery in 2009 and 2010. Air China will take 24 A320s and China Eastern Airlines will take 30. A total of 46 remain to be allocated to three more airlines. Jul 10, 2006

Reports from Russia are suggesting that the braking system failed on the S7 Airlines A310-300 that skidded on a wet runway after landing at Irkutsk International Airport at approximately 7:50 a.m. local time Sunday morning. At least 119 passengers and five crew were killed when the aircraft broke through a 6-ft. concrete barrier and crashed into a series of one-story garages, with some reports raising the death toll to 131. At least 20 passengers are in serious condition. There were 195 passengers and eight crew aboard the aircraft, which was arriving from Moscow Domodedovo. S7 said, "The aircraft landed normally, touching down precisely in the part of the runway allocated for landing on the runway. Once the aircraft had touched down, the crew reported the landing to an air traffic controller. The aircraft, however, then overran the runway and crashed into obstacles (garages) right beside the runway." Jul 11, 2006

The airline will make a one-off payment of RUB50,000 ($1,863) to each victim's next of kin to cover funeral expenses, with other compensation issues to be determined later or on a case-by-case basis. S7 is the new name of Sibir Airlines, Russia's second-largest, which rebranded in the spring. The A310 still wore Sibir's blue-and-white livery. S7 operates 65 aircraft, including 16 Airbuses, according to Reuters. Sunday's accident was the third major catastrophe to hit the carrier. In October 2001, a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile accidentally struck a Tu-154 on its way to Tel Aviv, killing 78 people. In August 2004, another Tu-154 was destroyed by a suicide bomber en route to Sochi from Moscow, killing 46. Jul 11, 2006

The S7 Airlines A310-300 Pratt & Whitney PW4152-powered plane that recently crashed was delivered to Pan Am off the production line in June 1987 and had accumulated 59,860 flight hr. on more than 10,000 trips. It underwent a C check in July 2005 at Lufthansa Technik's Frankfurt facility. The flight recorders are being analyzed, according to press reports. Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network reported that the weather at IKT was "poor" with rain and overcast clouds at 600 ft. The aircraft landed on runway 30, which is 3,165 m. long. S7 said the two pilots each had accumulated more than 9,600 hr. of flying time without incident. Jul 11, 2006