Farnborough: Airbus has unveiled plans for a new plane to rival Boeing's Dreamliner, which will be a redesign of its A-350 and will cost $ 10 billion to develop.
A-350 is the superjumbo performing for the first time at Farnborough.
The new chief executive of Airbus apologized again for the crises at his company and promised a new way of doing business.
“Key to the reform plan is the revamped A-350, now with the initials XWB - Extra Wide Bodied,” said chief executive officer of Airbus, Christian Streiff.
Privately Airbus will admit that this revamped plane is what they should have offered two years ago.
Now Boeing already has a lead in the field and Airbus has to hope the airlines will wait.
Boeing already has more than 400 Dreamliner planes while Airbus has not even built the plane yet and having seen the Airbus experience, Boeing knows only too well the problems it may face.
“New airplanes are very difficult to build. We are already a little over weight and over target. Delivery will be in 2008,” said executive vice president of Boeing, Alan Mulally.
If Boeing is feeling pleased with the way things are going, back at Airbus, it’s not all gloom. The new chief is relishing getting to the grips.
“It’s almost a dream even if it’s a crisis,” says Christian Streiff.
With such determination from the very top of Airbus, the message is clear.
Boeing may have the upper hand at the moment and even though Airbus is badly bruised, the battle goes on.
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