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Non-Baseball: Boeing vs. Airbus From the Seats, February 3, 2005 MINNEAPOLIS - I know, I know, this is a site where I have said I will talk about Twins Baseball. Well for the past few months I have done just that, blabbered about the Twins and rest of baseball. Gave my random, off the top of my head thoughts on the subject of sports. I don’t know what there is to write about for baseball tonight. Not much is happening that I haven't covered, so I will talk about something else that is swarming around my head right now. For those into aviation or more so commercial aviation have some stand on the Boeing vs. Airbus argument. Who is better and why. Even those who are not into aviation that much might have an opinion. Passengers might like one over the other or have formed other opinions. Recently Airbus has been kicking Boeings but in terms of sales, and big time on Boeings home turf, the good ‘ol U.S.A. Airlines such as Northwest, United, U.S. Airways, America West, Jet Blue, Frontier and American all operate some type of Airbus, mainly the A320 and A319, the exception being American who operates A300’s. So what's the big deal? Same thing is happening with the auto market, foreign auto makers are bigger in the U.S. than American auto companies are. But there is a difference. France helps out Airbus, giving them money to help them sell their aircraft at a cheaper cost than Boeing can. So when an airline goes to look at a new plane they compare the 737-800 and A320, they see positive and negatives about both, but see a cheaper price tag on the Airbus planes and end up buying them. If an airline gets hung up on what which one they are buying Airbus will dump some of the price, get some help from the French government to sell the plane. So we have a number of U.S. airlines buying this former plane, which ends up hurting Boeing and the U.S. People who work around the planes, such as a line people or mechanics will tell you that Boeings are better built than Airbus planes are. So in 30 years who knows how some of these Airbus planes will hold up. Will they hold up like Boeing planes will? We don’t know yet. I am a Boeing guy myself, go by the saying of “If it isn't Boeing, it isn't going.” I have flown on both types of planes and have vouched to do whatever I can to stay off of Airbus planes. That means scheduling flights so I don't have to fly on them. That serves to be more difficult than one might think. With Northwest purchasing more planes from Airbus it makes it tuff to get on one of the 757 flights they have. I personally would like to see a tax on Airbus planes operated in the U.S. do what can be done to make it an equal market again. That is my thought for today, tomorrow I will be back on baseball. |