Good Old Europe

This article cracks me up. Airbus has unveiled its new superjumbo jet, capable of carrying 840 people. That is a pretty impressive achievement. According to the article the Europeans are pretty stocked about having a bigger plane than Boeing.

For the countries which backed the 10.7-billion-euro (14-billion-dollar) development cost, the plane stood as a prominent symbol of European cooperation.

“Good old Europe has made this possible,” German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a packed hall in Airbus’s headquarters in Toulouse, southwest France.

That was a barely-veiled barb recalling the US dismissal of France, Germany and other EU states in 2003 as “Old Europe” because of their opposition to the war on Iraq.

Noel Forgeard, the French head of Airbus, made similar hints in his presentation of the A380 during a spectacle featuring computer graphics, atmospheric theme music and swirling colours.

“The European states — so easily accused of weakness — backed this fantastic challenge 35 years ago and have believed in the A380,” he said.

The hubris on display was reinforced by recent figures showing that, for the second year running, Airbus has outsold Boeing and now holds some 57 percent of the world market for passenger aircraft.

I can understand that the Europeans are justifiably happy about their new plane, but thinking they have outdone America because they have subsidized the building of a great airplane is a hollow victory. It is also possible that Boeing could not afford to make such a large plane because Airbus is subsidized and does not need to worry about being as profitable as Boeing. There likely is only room for one plane this size in the market, and Boeing couldn’t afford to lose billions on the development cost of such as plane, but Airbus could, and so Airbus built the plane and Boeing could afford to take the risk. It is possible that Airbus has properly taken account of the financial risks involved in the making of such of a plane.

The sad truth about “good old Europe” as Gerhard Schroeder called it is that its economy isn’t not as robust and doesn’t grow as quickly as the United States. It’s a nice little victory to build a big, cool plane, but that doesn’t help the average European have more economic prosperity. And because Airbus is subsidized, it is quite possible this plane will cost good old Europe.