Thursday, December 15, 2005

Boeing whups up on Airbus

Great big sale to Qantas.

The article is almost obsequious to the journalistic principal of "write for balance," but here's the reason I like Boeing:

1. Sure, Airbus has a point, that the hub system is going to stay in place. But that's because the hubs are great big cities where people still want to go, and because politically, the other airports aren't going to change much. DFW to Chicago will always be a big-time route, because lots of Chicagoans like to visit Dallas, and vice versa.

2. Boeing has whupped on so badly on Airbus, because while Airbus, in typical Euro fashion, has focused on airport structure and political planning, aka, the centralised game, Boeing actually paid attention to its customers. Their customers are the airlines, not the government-run/overseen airports. And the airlines know that point-to-point travel is what's going to make them a profit. Why is it going to make them a profit? Because if I have to go from Little Rock to Manhattan, KS, why the HELL would I want to drive there via Dallas or Cincinnati? Price being price, most people want to actually go where they're going.

Kudos to Boeing for figuring that out.

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