Well, a course correction has occurred for Airbus fortunes. It is facing a North America trifecta with American, United, and Delta airlines. The first shoe dropped when American Airline ordered 47 widebody 787's last month leaving Airbus the bridesmaid once again. Airbus lost to Boeing in Hawaii when its main airline on the island switch from A330 to 10 787's on its order book.
United will have a plethora of fleet slots when it retires its last 767's numbering about 50 and Airbus once again is in a position of being slighted by those pesky Yankees. The term, "once again", pops up in this blog too many times.
John Leahy an American born business personality kept Boeing at bay for many years, while leading Airbus' most noted programs evolving in the marketplace. He was the Airbus tip of the market spear and has since retired, as all good people born in 1950 have probably done so by now. He loved to jab his spear in Boeing's side at an airshow as he sandbagged order announcements, and then announcing after Boeing would make a significant announcement. He also held customer orders in confidence until Boeing announced its final booked order for the year, then Airbus ends the year with a mass Leahy order, making it the top dog for the year. All these maneuvers agitated Boeing and made them look "secondarily" number two(hah).
It worked as the Airbus single-aisle order book soared to new heights. He forced Boeing to bring on the Max. Boeing got the Leahy message and bracketed the Airbus widebody market with three 787's and two 777X types. It now looks as if it will roll out its stepchild, the 797.
At the top, it was mentioned a trifecta and Delta completes the North American sweeping out of Airbus from Boeing's door. The 797 will make Delta whole again with North America's patriots when becoming Boeing's North American launch customer for its type. United Airlines will order Boeing 787 over Airbus as it replaces its old portion of the fleet of 767's.
John Leahy's retirement ended the Airbus market run and sealed its corporate profit doom for the time being. The NW, MW or SE airplane "top dog" is already making headway in just a few months since Leahy takes his Syracuse MBA home again. Airbus lost its dog in the fight. It is now facing the NMA without an adequate plan. The A321NEO is not positioned to both take on the single-aisle and the dual aisle Boeing onslaught at the same time. It must come up with its plan "B" with another John Leahy NEO type it hasn't found. Boeing will go North of 100, 787's ordered this year, while Airbus will have a negligible widebody order book report at year's end unless Airbus pulls one more fast one with a December mega order announcement.
John Leahy saw the writing on the wall, he was 68 and Airbus was boxed in without the means for an immediate answer for Boeing's airplane designs. However, his golden parachute is floating just fine.
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