On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:24:30 -0700, me
wrote:
>On Oct 11, 1:22 pm, john_k...@hotmail.com (John Kulp) wrote:
>> First, not true because they have sold several freighter versions of
>> the 747 already.
>
> Not sure what you mean here. The 747 started out life as a
>freighter.
>I assume you're refering to the 747-8. This isn't quite the plane
>Boeing originally try to sell to compete with the A380. They had
>something a bit closer to 500 seats. They gave up on that one.
>The -8 is just another in a long line of stretches and engine
>mods.
That's the plane alright. And they are selling as freighters.
>> Again true, but it is looking increasingly likely that Boeing was dead
>> right about the A380 and it is looking increasingly unlikely that
>> enough will be sold to make a profit, especially with all the
>> penalties Aitbus has to pay
>
> I was one who basically figured Boeing knew what they
>were talking about, so it's a little self serving for me to be
>predicting the A380 demise. They figure these things it
>terms of decades and alot can change in that time. Airbus'
>troubles are relatively short term there. Their problem
>will be if they don't ever achieve their efficiency/capacity
>problems. But if they do, and markets change
>in their favor, they have to sell something like 500 of them
>to be safely into profits. On a world wide scale, with
>roughly no direct competition, that's not alot of aircraft.
>Boeing thinks the overall market has room for about 900
>of this "class".
>
Well, I don't know where these supposed market changes are supposed to
come from. The A380 may make sense for cases where true airport
capacity has been reached (like Heathrow) and a few routes already
defined, but the 787 makes a lot more sense on most other routes where
more frequent smaller capacity is what is desired by customers. |