The silent scream of the unloved Aerospace customer.

The silent scream of the unloved Aerospace customer

Kamran Zamir, 28th January 2010

This collection of recent quotes highlight that the airlines are not satisfied with the performance of either Airbus or Boeing. The critical issue of mis-servicing customer (internal and external) requirements, is rapidly becoming one of the most serious problems affecting the industry today.

Notice how Udvar-Hazy’s choice of wording has strengthened over the 2 years from 2007 to 2009; compare ‘optimized for the airlines not for the manufacturers’ and ‘I was so frustrated…’ alongside the 2009 statement ‘You cannot deal with companies that are unreliable’.

On 10 February 2009, Aero-News.net reported: ‘Udvar-Hazy, Branson Predict Rough Times For Planemakers’

‘Both Chide Boeing For Strike-Related Delays. Two of commercial aviation’s biggest names had sobering comments about Boeing Commercial Aircraft last week, marring what should have been the cheerful occasion of the delivery of a new Boeing 777 to V Australia…
‘Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin group of airlines, appeared conscious his comments would reach both execs and workers at Boeing, and did not mince words. He commented on his new 777, which was supposed to have been delivered last year: “It was a horrible mess that Boeing was on strike,” he said. “We messed up tens of thousands of passengers over Christmas. We had to buy tickets on other airlines and scramble to get seats which weren’t available. The financial damage in an industry where the margins are minute is catastrophic.”…
‘Regarding Branson’s comments on Boeing labor woes, Udvar-Hazy added “You can’t deal with companies that are unreliable.”

Feb 2009, Seattle Post Intelligencer: ‘All-Boeing’ Ryanair considering Airbus order. The article reports that even after publicly stating in 2002 “Our message to Boeing today is, you keep building ‘em, we’ll keep flying ‘em and together we will beat the crap out of Airbus in Europe,” Ryanair CEO O’Leary is now considering purchasing Airbus.

2 May 2008, FlightGlobal.com: “[Emirates] president, Tim Clark… says: ‘We’re waiting for Airbus to complete its evaluation. The A380 deliveries are crucial to what we want to do, so if we don’t get them as planned, then we’ll have an acute problem.’” This statement was made after Emirate’s first 5 A380’s, originally scheduled for delivery in 2006 had already been delayed to 2009.

10 May 2007, New York Times, quoting Steven Udvar-Hazy of International Lease Finance Corporation, the world’s largest buyer of commercial aircraft for the airlines: ‘Mr. Hazy says he is not shy about telling Boeing and Airbus what to build: “We are saying to the manufacturers, ‘Here’s what the plane should look like.’ Our loyalty is to the airline industry that serves the public, and the product has to be optimized for the airlines and not for the manufacturers” … Before a stunned crowd at an industry gathering last spring, Mr. Hazy lowered the boom on the A350 and, almost overnight, killed the design. This followed months of private discussions with Airbus executives in which Mr. Hazy complained that the proposed A350 was just a “warmed up” version of an existing plane, and that its wing design made it too slow… “I felt Airbus was paying attention, but was not embracing our ideas. I was so frustrated with Airbus because they were stalling”… He has warned Boeing and Airbus that the days of their control may be numbered by the growth of the Chinese, Russian and Japanese aviation industries.’