Boeing, Airbus take dogfight to Paris
However, industry giants have more to worry than each other: rising competition from other countries.
paris — The aircraft industry descends on Paris on Monday for the world’s biggest airshow, a prime battleground for bitter rivals Boeing and Airbus, but also a chance for new kids on the block to snap at the heels of the two giants.
Single-aisle planes for short and medium distances are the hottest ticket in the world’s civil aviation industry, with airline demand for models in the Airbus A320 family giving the European company an edge, for now, over its American opponent which is racing to return in force to the mid-range segment.
But the duopoly is not without challengers: competition is looming, notably from Russia and China who have each been test-flying their own mid-range models.
The airshow comes a little too early for either Russia’s Irkut, with its MC-21, or China’s Comac, with the much-flagged C919, to be able to showcase their aircraft there, but both will leave little doubt that they expect to win a big slice of the aviation pie in the future.
Boeing, meanwhile, is to showcase the 737 Max 9 model as its anti-Airbus weapon in a market segment where the capacity to squeeze a few more seats into a narrow-body cabin while eking out increased fuel efficiency over greater ranges is key. Airbus’s biggestcapacity member of the mid-range family, the brand new A321neo, is able to fit in 236 seats in an alleconomy class version. Low-cost airlines are eyeing the aircraft to break into transatlantic routes.
Coming up next from Boeing is the 737 Max 10 which is to match that capacity, while also being lighter and cheaper, the plane maker has said. Test flights have been completed and Boeing is now talking to customers about ordering the Max 10.
“This aeroplane would give airlines increased capacity and the lowest seat costs ever for a singleaisle aeroplane,” said Randy Tinseth, vice-president for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
“Simply put, the 737 MAX 10X would be the most profitable single-aisle aeroplane the industry has ever seen,” Tinseth wrote in a blog entry.
Airbus will showcase its new long-haul model A350-1000 and Boeing its 787-10 Dreamliner while Ukraine’s Antonov will present its 132 D. —