Fedex loses patience with Airbus
Surprise!
PARIS - FedEx Corp. Canceled its order for 10 Airbus A380 jets on Tuesday, the first customer to retract an order for the new jumbo double-decker plane that has been dogged by numerous delays.
The world's largest express transportation company cited Airbus production delays and said in a statement that its FedEx Express unit has ordered 15 Boeing Co. 777 freighters with a list price of $3.5 billion and taken options on an additional 15.
Emirates, which has ordered 45 of the A380s and is the programs largest customer, said last month it would send a team of technicians to France to assess the accuracy of promised delivery dates for the A380 superjumbo.
Virgin Atlantic Airways also said last month it would defer the delivery of the first of its six Airbus A380 superjumbo jets until 2013. (source)
I'm no economist or engineer, but In my humble opinion, the A380 was a financial disaster waiting to happen, and not just the aircraft. Talk of having to reinforce runways and ramps to hold her weight, and a 5-7 (!!) mile wake turbulance clearance requirement delaying any traffic following the A380 made it just seem like too much trouble, and not enough demand to justify it. Besides, the 747 is a beautiful, majestic aircraft, and the A380 looks like a clumsy tube sock stuffed with newspaper.
Apparently, Airbus' A350 project is also under scrutiny as whether it makes financial sense to continue building it, given the amount of capital invested in the A380. US Airways were to launch the A350, but perhaps are looking elsewhere.
While my initial thought was that it was a good thing to keep all of this money at home with a U.S builder, the obvious problem with one manufacturer building the world's fleet is that the prices will go up, orders for heavy iron will go down, and jobs in the industry will go down with it...
Time will tell.
PARIS - FedEx Corp. Canceled its order for 10 Airbus A380 jets on Tuesday, the first customer to retract an order for the new jumbo double-decker plane that has been dogged by numerous delays.
The world's largest express transportation company cited Airbus production delays and said in a statement that its FedEx Express unit has ordered 15 Boeing Co. 777 freighters with a list price of $3.5 billion and taken options on an additional 15.
Emirates, which has ordered 45 of the A380s and is the programs largest customer, said last month it would send a team of technicians to France to assess the accuracy of promised delivery dates for the A380 superjumbo.
Virgin Atlantic Airways also said last month it would defer the delivery of the first of its six Airbus A380 superjumbo jets until 2013. (source)
I'm no economist or engineer, but In my humble opinion, the A380 was a financial disaster waiting to happen, and not just the aircraft. Talk of having to reinforce runways and ramps to hold her weight, and a 5-7 (!!) mile wake turbulance clearance requirement delaying any traffic following the A380 made it just seem like too much trouble, and not enough demand to justify it. Besides, the 747 is a beautiful, majestic aircraft, and the A380 looks like a clumsy tube sock stuffed with newspaper.
Apparently, Airbus' A350 project is also under scrutiny as whether it makes financial sense to continue building it, given the amount of capital invested in the A380. US Airways were to launch the A350, but perhaps are looking elsewhere.
While my initial thought was that it was a good thing to keep all of this money at home with a U.S builder, the obvious problem with one manufacturer building the world's fleet is that the prices will go up, orders for heavy iron will go down, and jobs in the industry will go down with it...
Time will tell.
posted by Neil at
11:43 AM
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