Competition in the aircraft industry intense? Why? Boeing vs Airbus?

Question

Competition in the aircraft industry intense? Why? for example. Boeing vs Airbus.

Answer 1

In Canada competition rises the prices, well at least that is what the Harper government tells us.

Answer 2

It's a very competitive business because of how much money is involved and because production takes so long. A large aircraft order for passenger jets or military tankers (since you mentioned Boeing and Airbus) amounts to billions over years not just in aircraft, but in support equipment, training, and equipment upgrades. It takes a long time for those planes to be built and a very long time before they have to be replaced, so when a government or an airline orders a bunch of large aircraft they are making a huge multi-decade commitment to that company. When you won't get another chance for a sale for fifteen, twenty, or thirty years, you will fight hard for it. If you don't get the contract, you may be losing a lot of development money and you're definitely losing a huge opportunity. On a national level, if your aircraft manufacturers aren't successfull, then the skilled workers that design and build the aircraft end up moving to other industries, along with the people who make all of the other products involved (like advanced metals, plastics, composites, and engines). If that were to happen, the nation would lose it's ability to produce a lot of critical industries. That's why so much governmental money (espcially in Europe and Asia) is spent on aviation. Basically, there's just a lot at stake in aviation industries worldwide. It might be nice if there were a little less pressure, but because it's so expensive and the industry is so vital to a nation's defense it'll likely always be pretty intense.

Answer 3

USA - vs - Europe rivalry.

These are the two industry giants. The competition is purely commercial and is healthy, much to the benefit of the various customers for their aircraft. Each has its own stake in the market sector and has its own reputation to guard. Many of the smaller manufacturers cannot afford to enter this arena merely because of their size.

Both Airbus Industrie and Boeing have billions at stake. Each of them have their production lines, their vast inventories, their R&D, the administrative and engineering set ups. Each of them have their own commitments. In the face of all this, and a product which sells, each has to match the other in all respects. There is no space for backing out. In order to survive, both must keep up their rivalry and their competition with each other.

Answer 4

That is simple. It is a billion's of dollars a year high tech industry. It is vital to any nations defense as well. One of the few the USA still dominates and has since end of WWII. We have lost a lot of our dominance to foreign competition because nickle and dime conservatives in Washington in the last twenty-five years have been so down on labor. I am an aircraft mechanic. It is hard, sometimes dangerous, highly skilled work as professional as the Engineers. I would not do it if I was not union. It would not be worth the constant on the job training, what I spend on tools and outside training, and the long hours and up's and down's of the industry. There are easier ways to make a living if you can do this. I would leave the field if I had to put up with the attitude that an Engineer or someone with an MBA is more important than I am. And the industry would not exist without us. We are its backbone. Anyone can dream up anything on a computer. Making it real is the mechanics job. I am very anti-yuppie. Very much union and have degrees of my own.....I have become very anti-Republican. They are short sighted and stupid and their attitude toward organized labor is one of their worst mistakes. Robert Crandall the former CEO of American Airlines was a hard bargainer. But he knew the worth of skilled labor. The young yuppies that have now taken over don't. They have in consequence largely ruined that company. It is not just fuel costs. It was asking employees for constant give backs to save the company after 9/11 while at the same time continuing to accept their own bonuses. Ironically suspending those awhile to show they were sharing the pain would have had good finacal effects for them as well as the company. American Airlines stock is only worth a little over six dollars a share currently. Labor and managment relations have never been so bad. Most the excutives bonuses are in company stock. The last seven years in America have been textbook examples that the Republican party no longer is practical in buisness or defense....Whoever gave me the thumbs down. There is currently a large labor shortage in Aerospace in America. Including the skilled trades. Why not get in the job if you feel it is so easy? Main problem today in our country is so few want to get their hands dirty....Victor is right, but it is not that simple. It is the skills involved. Just one example. Working with metal and composites is totally different. Composites per part and pound of material are highly expensive. The techniques are more like wood working. But you can't make the mistakes you can get away with in wood. You can't splinter a single hole drilling through, it is scrap or a very expensive repair. You can't sand it out. Nothing can expose the plies of matarial in the matrix. You don't rivet composites. It delalminates them. Ruins them. You use expensive and special fasteners and it is also the indviduals native ability and experience. Training that cost thousands as well.....and this is just one example of thousands of things a mechanic has to know and deal with....How many of the people who don't like my answers have ever worked on an airplane or got their hands dirty at anything skilled?

Answer 5

I agree with mark BUT I worked in the military part and we needed republicans for keeping the military strong without the cutbacks. I found that the aviation field is the first to go in the economy and the last to recover. (I was on lay-off for 8 yrs with NO HELP FROM THE UNION)look what carl ican done with twa. I also talk with EX A&P mechs that left to do jobs with stability.

Airbus is goverment subsidies without having a need to turn a profite

Boeing uses there own money to keep runing