PrintMarch 16, 2007
Politics in Command at Airbus
When politics takes over from business in the operation of a world scale company, the consequences are often profound and unpredictable in the long run. With open talk of French government money to recapitalize Airbus so it won't "fail" (the word used by presidential front runner Nicolas Sarkozy), and visible tensions between the French and German governments, politics is openly dominating business concerns at the company which shares the world's large airliner business with Boeing.Airbus received what looks at first glance to be very good news yesterday with two huge orders for the XWB model, which had been languishing compared to the massive order book enjoyed by Boeing's rival 787 Dreamliner. But both of these orders likely have political strings attached, related to the looming question of the need for more capital. Qatar Airways has announced its intention to order 80 A350XWB aircraft. By any standard this is massive order, out of proportion to the size of the airline,...(Read Full Article)
