And I just laughed till I thought I'd die...

Can you say "Concorde"?

Glad I was following my own advice about not drinking coffee while reading this blog.

While this is embarrassing for Airbus, their real problem is that they cannot match Boeing on the Dreamliner (the Boeing 787) with their A350, which is a market size representing probably three times the number of jumbo aircraft. And if they are devoting their minds and muscle to pushing the A380 out the door, then they will be even further behind on the A350.

They've got at least 2 real problems. The 380's niche keeps getting smaller; I don't see Airbus selling enough to even recover its costs on this cattle car.

The new 350 is still conceptual -- at least 4 yrs behind the 787. And given the delays on the 380 would you bet your airline on the 350 showing up on schedule in 4 yrs or so?

Airbus will limp along on subsidies and enough orders to keep Boeing from gaining a monopoly, but it's had its day -- and it was a short one.

We are very lucky that the people who run Boeing are not the people who ran the American auto industry.

Boeing is lucky that it competing with socialists, not capitalists like the Japanese...

I wonder where any airline would park that brute at say, Tom Bradley Int terminal at LA?

Calling Japanese capitalists and European socialists doesn't explain anything. First, Japan had more than its share of government intervention and subsidy - ever hear of MITI? Second, the airplane market is intensely competitive, and Airbus acts towards those customers, not some bureaucrat who doesn't care about results.

Airbus kicked Boeing up, down and sideways in the late '90s and early '00s and was just as "socialist." But they placed their bets on the wrong hand, and Boeing bet right (plus radically changing the way they designed and built the dreamliner.)

The American automotive industry however, refused to learn their lessons, constantly bet on the wrong management fads, failed to prepare for market turns, and never really wanted to take on the Japanese. Their management was simply decadent.

It wasn't management, just unions. The Euros don't have the Japanese advantage there.

The first thing Airbus did upon gaining parity with Boeing is build a trophy (the A380). That was the French gov't influence, not a management looking out for the shareholders. You see the same influence at work in every key decision Airbus makes -- hiring, subcontracting, siting, pricing, etc.