Non-Subscriber Extract
US aerospace drops, Europe levels off
- Article Tools
| 24 September 2001 |
By Philip Butterworth-Hayes
US aerospace industry sales were expected to fall by about $400 million this year, according to the US Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Sales totalled $143.4 billion last year and could drop by as much as $5.6 billion in 2002 and $6.7 billion in 2003, said ATA. Sales were expected to fall to $143 billion this year, down from initial estimates of $145 billion before the September 11 attacks. Boeing has said it would cut 30,000 jobs and deliver about 500 aircraft this year, down from a planned 538. The company cut its 2002 goal of 510 to 520 jets by about 100 and warned of further cuts in 2003.
In contrast, the mood at the half-year result meeting of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) on September 18 was relatively upbeat.
Chief executive officers Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich said that instead of ramping up production progressively over the next two years Airbus had already decided in the summer to hold production at the present level, currently around 350 aircraft a year. EADS has an 80% stake in Airbus. "As a matter of fact, the flexibility embedded in the production tool and the workers contracts enable Airbus to adapt to production rates fluctuations in a 15 % overall range," said the two EADS CEOs. EADS announced an increase in half-year Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of 38% to Euro 764 million. And the number of Airbus aircraft on order by US airlines - and, in theory at least, the most vulnerable to cancellations and delays - remains relatively modest compared to its overall backlog
According to a spokesman from the UK's Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC): "Europe's aerospace companies tend to be Airbus-dominant rather than Boeing-dominant; they're looking at not ramping up production and not taking on new staff and sub-contractors rather than cutting production and firing."