Airbus Turns Up Heat in Rivalry With Boeing

Airbus Industrie said it will deny factory parts and services to airlines that buy used Airbus planes from Boeing Co., intensifying the battle between the world’s only two makers of large jetliners.

Boeing agreed in June to buy 17 used Airbus A-340-300 jets from Singapore Airlines Ltd. and resell them to support the airline’s $1.9-billion purchase of 10 Boeing 777 jets. The order was a blow to Airbus, which will see many of its wide-body jets phased out by one of Asia’s most important carriers.

Airbus said Boeing’s move threatens to revive a discounting war that both plane makers had promised to end.

At $135 million or more apiece, the competing 777 and A-340 jetliners are among the most expensive the companies make. Both planes, which were developed in the last decade, can carry from 275 to 400 people on an intercontinental flight.

“We don’t see why we should assist Boeing in such a situation” by “indirectly marketing” the trade-in jets with promises of sales support, said Barbara Kracht, a spokeswoman for Airbus at its headquarters in Toulouse, France.

Kracht said she could not offer specifics on exactly what Airbus would withhold from any buyers of the 17 planes because Airbus is still dealing with a hypothetical situation.

Flight International, a weekly trade magazine, reported Airbus’ intentions in this week’s issue.

Boeing spokeswoman Marta Newhart said the company had no comment, and declined to discuss the terms of Boeing’s agreement with Singapore Airlines further.

Boeing and Airbus both have occasionally helped an airline by reselling a few of its manufacturing rival’s used planes. With the Singapore Airlines deal, Boeing has said it has never bought so many Airbus planes at one time. Analysts consider the move a gamble because Boeing committed itself to finding buyers for large jets at a time when Asia’s economy is still not strong.