Things to Watch For in 2001
A Super-Jumbo Dogfight for Space in the Air
With last week’s decision by Airbus Industrie shareholders to spend $11 billion to produce the world’s largest airliner, the A380 super-jumbo jet promises to be the aerospace industry’s most closely watched development in the first year of the new millennium.
Billed as a cruise ship in the sky, the double-decker aircraft is seen as advancing air travel much as Boeing Co.’s 747 did 30 years ago. The immense cabin will accommodate up to 800 passengers, some of whom will be able to sleep on bunks, take showers and lounge at a casino or work out in a gym.
It also represents Airbus Industrie’s boldest attempt yet at wresting away Boeing’s dominance of the market for large aircraft and achieving equal footing with its chief rival.
Boeing, with its flagship 420-seat 747, is the world’s largest commercial airplane maker. Airbus, which produced about 38% of the commercial airplanes, compared with Boeing’s 61%, is the second largest.
The stakes are so huge--80,000 jobs will be created to produce the plane--that 2001 promises to be the year in which trade tensions are likely to escalate between the United States and Europe over the jet’s development. U.S. trade officials are likely to step up complaints that European countries are providing Airbus with government-subsidized loans at below-market rates in violation of a trade agreement.
“It will be the headline-grabbing fight for the next decade because of the huge dollars involved,” said Jon B. Kutler, president of Century City-based Quarterdeck Investment Partners Inc., an aerospace investment banking firm.
