BA looking at new long haul fleet

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 17 Oct 2006, 19:02

Just out of curiousity - has anyone considered what the ramifications of a single producer of commercial aircraft would be - as Garry astutely observed its about who has the best deal NOT the best product - Our company has been courted by both companies and their products are damn near indentical for our purposes (A320 vs B737-800) The fact the both companies misled us as to what their products would actually do is interesting, and that Boeing rather that Airbus seemed more afraid and therefore more enthusiastic to "bash" their competition struck me as odd. Finally I personally think that BA should order 60 Vanguards for their short haul requirements and 50 SVC10 for their long range requirements and 20 Dirigibles for the "wide body high density"requirments. But thats just me , you know

Cheers

Leif

Off to let the medication catch up with me

TobyV · Post by **TobyV** » 17 Oct 2006, 22:11

Leif, totally agree (except maybe with your lasst bit

). I think it would be a disaster if we ever got to the stage where there was only 1 main supplier of airliners. Elimination of competition and choice is never a good thing. It wouldnt promote new technologies, it would mean higher prices and (ok, a bit superficially) it'd make life rather boring!

I personally have a few concerns with some of the technologies that are going into the 787 and they are the sort of things that "only time will tell" about. So whilst Airbus might appear to be lagging Boeing at the moment, these things go in cycles and will probably swap around again before long. Up until say the last year or so, Airbus has actually been leading Boeing. The two are unlikely to ever be neck-and-neck, but I hope both survive and I hope that others (possibly Russians and maybe other nations such as Brazil, Canada and emerging economies in the east) will eventually "join" them, at least in the short haul sector.

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 18 Oct 2006, 00:14

Ta Toby

Im just an old lag at heart - nothing would be finer than to hear the sound of Tynes emasse and as Sean so aptly puts it - smell Avtur in the morning

BTW - Lookingat some of the innovations the Russians are coming out with They may stand to win out of a battle between A and B

Leif

Chris Trott · Post by **Chris Trott** » 18 Oct 2006, 02:18

There are several Russian designs that I wouldn't be surprised to start selling in the Western Hemisphere in the next 5-10 years, including the AN-140 if they can get a few nagging certification issues out of the way. Several of their major aircraft (like the IL-96) are offered with Western engines (PW mainly) and avionics (on the IL-96 and IL-76, it's Collins displays) but there are parts about the way the planes have been designed that are "out of sorts" with Western aircraft designs that have been holding them back. Hopefully they'll get them sorted out and we'll finally see the re-emergence of a 3rd Large Aircraft manufacturer in the marketplace.