Boeing Boeing

Not the Jerry Lewis movie, but the French are again scrambling their schedules:

PARIS, Oct 5, 2006 (AFP) - European plane-maker Airbus said Thursday it may need 15 years to catch up with and overtake US rival Boeing, while the co-chief executive at parent company EADS said plans for the new mid-size A350 jet might have to be scrapped.

"This is such a long-term business," Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff told the Financial Times after EADS announced further production delays to the development of the A380 superjumbo, a key component in the competition with Boeing, as well as the prospect of heavy losses.

.... The co-chief executive of EADS, Thomas Enders, meanwhile told the Financial Times Deutschland that the future of the planned A350 XWB extra-wide bodied passenger jet could be in question.

...."Even if we arrive with three or four years' delay with respect to Boeing's 787, this question (of the A350) is capital for the devlopment of Airbus," he told the French daily Le Monde.

"Being absent from a segment that represents 40 percent of the value of the market is difficult to imagine," he said.

....With the A380 program now nearly two years behind schedule, EADS on Tuesday issued a profit warning and forecast a cash shortfall of EUR 6.3 billion.