Was United’s Order for A350-1000s Last Week Actually a Loss for Airbus and a Win for Boeing?

by Adam

An interesting article from Motley Fool regarding United’s decision to upgrade its 25 Airbus A350-900 orders to the larger A350-1000 model announced at the Paris Air Show last week. United also announced an order for twenty 787-10 stretch Dreamliners during the show as well.

…Boeing is now poised to dominate the high-volume segments of the widebody market at United, while Airbus is confined to the lower-volume “large widebody” market segment. This probably means that Boeing will get the vast majority of future widebody orders from United…It is therefore not a coincidence that shortly after United agreed to order 20 787-10 airplanes, the company switched its Airbus order from the similarly sized A350-900 to the larger A350-1000. The A350-1000 will primarily replace United’s 23 Boeing 747 jumbo jets. United’s new 787-10 orders suggest that the company intends to use that plane to replace its fleet of 74 Boeing 777s. While Airbus gained 10 A350 orders from United last week, this wasn’t really a win for the company. Boeing’s timely decision to stretch the Dreamliner has positioned it to win almost all of United’s widebody replacement business over the next 10-15 years. By contrast, Airbus will primarily provide replacements for the largest jets in United’s fleet: a lower-volume segment.

Agree? Full article available here?

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2 comments

Kris Ziel June 30, 2013 - 12:08 pm

So the Boeing friendly management decides to upgrade Airbus orders and somehow it is seen as a loss for Airbus? what a joke. Anyone who thought the 350 would a replacement for anything other than the 744 in United’s fleet doesn’t know what they are talking about.

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craz June 30, 2013 - 6:41 pm

If anything the Airbus order is a loss to Boeing, who probably thought they could get UA to purchase the 748 to replace the 744s

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