Flying into battle
A Canadian company is about to declare war on Boeing and Airbus
LAST week Boeing launched its first new product in ten years, the 250-seater 7E7 airliner. This week, Airbus opened the factory in Toulouse where it will assemble its A380 super-jumbo, its first all-new aircraft in the same period. But have the two giants that dominate the market for big jet aircraft become so obsessed with each other that they have ignored incipient competition? The world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer, Bombardier, has launched 14 new aircraft in the past 14 years, and is now preparing to move into the market for planes carrying more than 100 passengers—currently a crucial Boeing-Airbus duopoly. Until now Bombardier has specialised in 50-100-seater regional and business jets.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Flying into battle”
From the May 8th 2004 edition
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