A380 to cost US$281m: Airbus chairman
PARIS : Airbus has put a catalogue price of 281 million dollars (234.6 million euros) on its future super-jumbo A380 model and expects at least one major Japanese airline to buy it, chairman Noel Forgeard said.
Speaking before a ceremony to open massive production facilities at Toulouse, southern France, later on Friday, he said: "The catalogue price of the A380 is 281 millions dollars (235 million euros) apiece."
Forgeard told US cable news television CNBC: "I'm very confident that at least one major Japanese carrier will operate the A380 for a very simple reason.
"Others carriers like Air France, Singapore or Lufthansa will operate the A380 in Tokyo Narita and then it will obviously put a huge pressure on the operators if they do not have the A380," he said in reference to the Japanese capital's main airport.
The plane, expected to carry more than 500 passengers, is being developed by Airbus, which is 80-percent owned by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space company (EADS) and 20 percent by BAE Systems of Britain.
Forgeard acknowledged that airlines rarely pay the catalogue price for planes, noting also that market prices were currently stable.
"In general, airplanes are sold today at about the same price in current dollars as three years ago, before September 11" terror attacks against the United States, he said.
"This is good for the airlines but it's (a) more difficult environment for us," the Airbus chairman said, before adding that his company was making "huge progress" in productivity.
The future super-jumbo will also be highly fuel efficient, Forgeard told France Inter radio, consuming around three litres (0.78 gallons) per passenger for 100 kilometers.
"The fact that oil is very expensive is very favorable for the A380 because it will be the most economical plane in existence," consuming "less than a small car," he claimed.
Forgeard admitted however that high oil prices could hurt the airline sector in general.
Speaking on the delicate issue of job relocations, he said Airbus does not have "a policy of relocalisation in the aim of finding lower prices elsewhere.
"Our base is primarily European but it could happen that in order to reach certain important markets, for example in China or Russia, we have to pay a price on the industrial level."
- AFP
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Courtesy channelnewsasia.com Friday, May 7th 2004