COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, October 20, 2006

Airbus Raises A380 (Airbus Titanicus) break-even target.


Airbus raises A380 break-even target
By Kevin Done in London and Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt Financial Times Subscription

"EADS warned investors on Thursday that the long delays and mounting costs of the Airbus A380 superjumbo programme meant that the group would have to produce 55 per cent more aircraft to reach break-even.

In a presentation to investors in Hamburg, Andreas Sperl, Airbus chief financial officer, said that the group would need to deliver 420 of the 555-seat giant aircraft for the programme to break even compared with the total of 270 aircraft forecast in the 2005 updated business case."

This is real bad news for Airbus, well actually the EU taxpayers who will have to bail them out again as Airbus has so far received orders for only 159 A380s and customers, angered by the delays, have threatened to cancel some contracts. Under current planning, Toulouse, France-based Airbus will deliver only 84 of the planes by 2010, compared with the 159 aircraft estimated as recently as June, with a total operating loss in the period of $6 billion. Looks like this big puppy may be profitable sometime after 2020, give or take a decade or two.

3 comments:

  1. rufus,

    You obviously were as offended as I to hear that "We (US military)are guests in this country." I distinctly remember the "invasion" of Iraq in 2003.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man-o-man
    What did the AirBus have to do with rufus getting up to speed, here in the curve.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Considering that the first A380 won't be ready for delivery until sometime in 2007, that means they'll be profitable in time for New Year's day 2566

    ReplyDelete