Airbus Hits Boeing Turbulence Again
Spiegel is reporting (German) on yet another Airbus ouch.
Lufthansa has announced that they will be receiving a total of 20 the new Boeing 747-800 long range aircraft. A further seven long range Airbus A340-600 aircraft should supplement the fleet in 2008 and 2009. According to the company the ordered aircraft have a list price totally $6.9 billion.
The head of Lufthansa Wolfgang Mayrhuber bluntly explained that his airline would be the first to use the new super-jumbo from Boeing. The 747-800 from the US manufacturer is the newest and enlarged version of the 747 jumbo family, which has been in service since 1969. The Lufthansa order gives the 747 program a much needed tailwind. The list price for the 747-800 passenger aircraft is between 272.5 and 282.5 million dollars. [my translation]
This hasn’t really been the best year for Airbus. The A380 has both delivery problems and the orders are trailing far behind expectations. Now with Lufthansa, the German ‘national’ airline, ordering aircraft from the American competition, the reindeer aren’t playing the little reindeer games in the Airbus hallways in Hamburg this week.
Lufthansa has been slowly increasing it’s fleet this year with the board of directors announcing the purchase of over 35 aircraft over starting in 2007.
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