Competition Between Boeing and Airbus

1. Introduction

In the Aviation Industry, there have always been various airframe producers which where competing against each other. Throughout the years, two of them gained the majority of the market share. These two companies are Boeing and Airbus. The American company Boeing has been the market leader for a very long period of time, until Airbus outrunned them for the first time in 2002.

The following paper deals with the History and the development of the competition between the two companies. It will give a brief overview of the different company objections and future market outlooks in relation to the new A380 and Boeing 787 “Dreamliner”.

2. The History of the competition

When William. E. Boeing founded the Boeing Airplane Company, it mainly build small Sport- and Military airplanes. During the Second World War the Aviation Industry grew tremendously. Boeing developed Bombers for the United States, for example the B-29, and helped them to reach supremacy in the air. After the war was over, the company made use of their gained experiences to start building airplanes for the civil air traffic. After already introducing the air-pressure-cabin, Boeing presented the 707, the first Jet-Airplane.

On April 31, 1966 Boeing decided to build an airplane with a capacity for up to 490 people, the Boeing 747. Three years later already, the first “Jumbo” was flying and, like its predecessors it became a huge success for the Boeing Company.

The History of Airbus is a much more recent one. After France and Germany worked on some projects together during the sixties, Airbus Industries was founded in cooperation with the British “Hawker and Sittley” company and the Dutch/German “Fokker” company in 1970. The biggest difference to Boeing was that Airbus allocated their production plants at different locations in France and Germany in order to work more time efficient and support the economy within the areas.

When