Crisis puts Airbus in tailspin
THE crisis in the aviation industry all but wiped out orders for Airbus aircraft in the first months of this year. Europe's largest aviation and defence group, Eads, reported its majority-owned Airbus subsidiary booked new orders worth e1.3bn (£810m) - only 15 new planes - in the first quarter, a 93% collapse from the e17bn of orders received a year earlier.
The plummeting demand comes as national flag carriers retrench after the collapse in international air travel following the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US. The one recent major order - 100 to 150 planes for budget airline Ryanair - went to Airbus's arch US rival Boeing, despite aggressive discounting offers from the Toulouse-based manufacturer.
The fall in demand has also led Airbus to cut 6,000 full-time jobs, with 500 going at its UK facilities which design and make wings for the aircraft.
Eads attempted to shrug off the Airbus figures, saying it is sticking with its forecast of delivering 300 new aircraft this year, from the 325 delivered in 2001. 'The commercial order situation in the first quarter of 2002 was not directly comparable to the same period in 2001, when airlines were still placing large orders,' it said.
'Initial signs of commercial market recovery were evident in April with Airbus reporting 22 orders during that month. Additionally, four major airlines have recently announced their intention to order a total of more than 100 Airbus aircraft in the near future.'
Airbus will be desperate to land an order currently under negotiation with easyJet, which after its acquisition of Go will want at least 80 aircraft over the next few years.
Eads, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, was formed from the merger of defence giants in France, Germany and Spain, and owns 80% of Airbus, with the rest in the hands of Britain's BAE Systems. For the first quarter Airbus made underlying profits of e396m, a fall of 7% from this time last year, after delivering 72 new aircraft against 79 a year ago.
Airbus accounts for more than two-thirds of Eads. Losses in the group's defence, civil systems, space and military transport aircraft divisions pared back group profit before interest and tax to e315m, a rise of 2% from last time.
