As a European I don't see Airbus being allowed to fall, after all it's mostly a military company which has also been busy building commercial aircraft in times of peace. The same discussion goes for Boeing, at most the US Government will nationalise it for a time.
If Boeing is necessary for national defence and no longer knows how to build aircraft, drastic action is needed by the US government on a very short timeframe to get their shit together. War is a thing.
In the meantime it's hard to disagree with the sentiment elsewhere in this thread that flying with airbus seems a better idea.
I don't think things are going that badly for Boeing. There are only two aircraft producers and Airbus is at full capacity. The airline industry is still growing. You would actually have to try really hard to fuck this up.
It would be amusing if the US government gives them money though. European alleged subsidy of Airbus is the latest accusation of Trump and one of the causes of the US-EU trade war.
This is literally the 'too big to fail' outcome.
Boeing sucks. They're only selling planes because AirBus can't build enough for all customers.
It's disappointing that mess after mess they're not held accountable. I suppose on the one hand, the U.S. wants a competitor to AB. But, AB does need a competitor, right? It's not like it's a good thing if Boeing goes away and AB has no competition.
You probably won't. The aerospace industry has one of the highest barriers of entry in cost, know-how, regulations and political connections.
Both Boeing and Airbus received a lot of government funding to get started and grow and still do to this day.
What will happen most likely is that the US and France/EU will just bail them out since they're not only vital for jobs but for defense and national security as well as their execs having strong ties to politicians in their respective regions who can push for a bailout package.
Considering that Boeing is in deep, deep trouble Airbus has stayed very quiet and deliberately so. Their only major competitor collapsing can't be good for the strategically. Just imagine Boeing going bankrupt and being split up with China buying some parts...
At least Airbus seems to be competent in building safe aircraft.
I would not be surprised though if Boeing's sales drop if the US government brings in tariffs or etc to try and force companies to buy their flying coffins.
I would say, as european, that all this storm of shit is good news for Airbus, but I hop on Boeing planes too, and I think competition is good news.
Boeing is maybe too big to fail, but the reputation hit they are taking may lead to companies not buying their planes, thus pushing for least competition, which is bad news for everyone.
Airbus being the kind of behemoth company it is, I am convinced that without Boeing's competition, over time, they would end up with the same practices, convinced that their aircraft sell themselves.
I'm disappointed American Airlines don't buy all Boeing planes, especially given their name. Although Airbus planes do have some American parts on them, they're mostly European. Considering they got USD$15 Billion in bailout money from the US Government, and just how good Boeing planes are at a very similar price point, supporting manufacturing in their country of origin seems like the right thing to do.
you cant kill boeing. if shit hits the fan theyre pretty much our only airline manufacturer. i mean what happens if the eu tells the us to fuck off. we don't get any more airbuses and if boeing is dead no way to make our own planes.
AFAIK, Airbus won’t hire American nationals. Boeing will hire Europeans, at least on the commercial side.
The defense part of Boeing used to be a separate company (McD). DoD could easily let commercial fail and spin out McD again, or just shrink to defense only. For a long time, Airbus has claimed that the DoD spending subsidizes the commercial side. So TBH, letting commercial fail would result in more bang for the DoD buck.
Think the govs lost their vetoes a while ago. Airbus is now a play by American asset managers AFAIK. Since the market’s mature, it’s more attractive and profitable to buy up programs like the A220 and farm EU subsidies vs. betting on a Boeing turnaround.
No way in the world will airlines, or the US government, accept a world where Airbus is the only company able to sell you a passenger airliner. Nor would they accept a word where the alternative to Airbus was Comac.
I'd rather fly in a plane made by an Airbus monopoly than a Boeing run by its current management. Modern American management has proven itself completely untrustworthy for doing anything where human lives are at stake. Airbus is an European company, so they're inherently more trustworthy. They've also proven themselves far more competent at modern aircraft design (they're not sticking with a circa-1967 design) and electronics (they've been doing fly-by-wire for a long time now, and haven't done anything as blatantly stupid as using a single sensor for controlling flight surfaces).
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