The Airbus-Boeing Duopoly

 
 
 

Vocabulary

soar	shakeup	brand new
twist	unsettle	strengthen
global	regional	aerospace
join	range (2)	nautical mile
bolster	stable (2)	dominance
series	duopoly	competitor
brand	rebrand	buy/bought/bought
expect	heart (3)	announce
await	approval	no longer
damn	count (3)	beat/beat/beaten (2)
rival	deal (2)	tit-for-tat
deliver	takeover	match (3)
merger	strength	opportunity
access	back (3)	grow/grew/grown
CEO	swallow	at the end of the day
CFO	separate	behemoth
rack up	order (3)	formidable
exist	point (4)	challenge
narrow	compete

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

The brand new Airbus A220, soaring and twisting in way that would unsettle the most frequent of fliers.

The A220, at the heart of the biggest shakeup in global aerospace in decades.

Reporter: “It’s not a regional jet; this is a full-sized aircraft?”
Bombardier CEO: “Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s a hundred-fifty (150) seater. It has a range of more than three-thousand (3,000) nautical miles.”

This plane which recently joined the Airbus stable bolsters the dominance of the duopoly, Airbus and Boeing.

A deal with Canada’s Bombardier bought the plane, which was then called the C-Series.

Airbus rebranded it the A220. And now, Airbus owns nearly sixty percent (60%) of the narrow body jet market.

Reporter: “You’re expecting it will sell better now as part of Airbus?”
Bombardier CEO: “Absolutely.”

With Airbus buying the C-Series last month, Boeing announced a takeover of the passenger jet business of Brazil’s Embraer. The deal is now awaiting approval.

Reporter: “You did your deal with Bombardier — Boeing immediately had to do their deal with Embraer.”

The Duopoly can’t be beaten.

Tom Enders, CEO Airbus: “We were not surprised by that. But I’m damn sure we have a better aircraft. And that is what counts.”

Having swallowed up smaller rivals, in a tit-for-tat series of mergers, the smaller competitors simply can no longer match the strength of Airbus and Boeing.

Reporter: “You must be sad to be leaving this part of the company. There must be a sadness to it.”

Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, CEO Embraer: “Well, it’s yes and no, because this is the opportunity for Embraer to grow in Brazil. So we will have much more access to markets. So we will sell much more of these machines here.”

Selling more machines to be sure; it’s not clear though, who’s the boss.

Reporter: “Are you starting to see airlines and customers showing more interest, now that they’re starting to realize it’s backed by Boeing?”

Greg Smith, Chief Financial Officer, Boeing: “Well, I think with time, they’ll certainly see that. There’s no question, they will be able to deliver more value to the customer at the end of the day together than we can separately.”

The behemoths continue to rack up orders to find formidable challenges in the future, they may have to look east.

Tom Ender, CEO Airbus: “The duopoly was not given by God — it existed only since the late nineties (90s), so some good twenty years. And at some point, the most serious challenger will be the Chinese.”

China as a challenger is still some way off.

Boeing and Airbus. The duopoly has been strengthened — the competitors couldn’t compete.

 

 

Questions

1. The A220 jet only flies linearly. True or false? What do passengers prefer? Can it only fly from France to Germany?

3. What is the difference between the A220 and the C Series?

4. Were there parallel event?

5. Currently, there is more competition by more aerospace companies. Is this right or wrong?

6. Is the Embraer CEO sad because Boeing is acquiring its passenger jet business? What did he say?

7. What will probably happen in the short-term future? In the long-term?

 

A. Many airline companies operate out of our airport. Yes or no? What are some major carriers?

B. What brands are these airplanes? Do you have a favorite airplane?

C. Is the aerospace duopoly good, bad, both, neither, it depends?

D. What will happen in the future?

E. Should the people or government do anything?