3 ms·

Can the US just buy airplanes from Airbus at this point?

• panick21_ 3y ago
  Not sure if you are joking or not. But since its not funny I assume not. Switching from one airplane to another isn't like switching from a Honda to a Toyota car. It requires lots of training and thus cost. Southwest as the prim example has many 100s of pilots trained on a 737, they have a huge maintenance network that is trained for the 737. They don't fly any Airbus at all, thus they have 0 experience in their whole operation. Switching would a monumental task. It was reported that Southwest took a serious look at A220 program, but has since doubled down on 737 for the next couple decades. Many airlines have switched to higher amounts of Airbus and Airbus has made inroads into the US market. But partly now Airbus has so many orders for 737 Max sized planes that if you order one, your gone have to wait for a long time. So, maybe you still rather get that 737MAX instead. For a while the market was more like 50/50, now we are trending towards a 40/60 market, or potentially even more. And that doesn't take into account that Boeing lowering prices quite to get some of these contracts.
• rsynnott 3y ago
  Lots of US airlines do (and lots of European airlines buy from Boeing; Ryanair even has a special 737 variant…)
• rconti 3y ago
  US airlines already can.
• StreetChief 3y ago
  not all boeings are bad, in fact, most are fantastically reliable, except for the newer versions with incredibly cheap design, that places extraordinary demands on pilots and their knowledge. There is a welchian management culture that is cutting costs to the bone.
• cromka 3y ago
  hint: JetBlue