Airbus boss slams owners

Jean Pierson, managing director of Airbus Industrie, has launched an astonishing attack on his own shareholders, accusing them of delaying the next generation of super jumbo jets by flirting with the enemy.

Mr Pierson said that as a result of the dalliance between Airbus's owners, which include British Aerospace, and his main rival, America's Boeing, "We have lost one year minimum."

The outburst comes amid growing fears that Airbus has fallen irrecoverably behind in the ultimate business race to build a 500-800 seater jet - a mega-market forecast to be worth $160bn (pounds 107bn) in the first 20 years of the 21st century.

A clear victory would determine which of the two companies dominates the commercial aerospace industry in the next century. Sources close to Airbus suggest the company is a good 18 months behind Boeing.

The attack came as the partners await a key report by supervisory board chairman Edzard Reuter on re-organising Airbus into a more traditional company.

Boeing is currently alone at the top end of the jumbo jet market with its 450-seat 747 and is planning a stretched version - the 747x - that could carry up to 600. Airbus has tentative plans for a double-decker airliner dubbed the A3XX, which could be in service by 2003.

But its four partners, BAe, France's Aerospatiale, Germany's Daimler- Benz and Casa of Spain, wasted more than two years in a joint research effort with Boeing into a Very Large Commercial Transport. The project collapsed last year.

Mr Pierson maintained there was never a real possibility of Boeing voluntarily sharing its monopoly position at the top end of the airliner market. "It was not common sense," he said.

Other Airbus sources said it was merely an attempt by Boeing to "look up the consortium's skirts", although there is no indication that the members revealed any vital secrets.

Although Mr Pierson tried to downplay the consequences, at least one big customer said last week that a delay could force it to buy from the competition. "There are many factors in the decision," said Choong Kong Cheong, managing director of Singapore Air Lines. "It wouldn't be honest of me to say timing isn't one of them."

SAL and British Airways have been the two largest carriers calling for development of a new generation of jets. "The super jumbo, once thought of as a vision of the distant future, needs to quickly become a reality," said Dr Cheong. "We would need six to start with. They can't come too soon."

Some observers have suggested there is only room for one super jumbo. Mr Pierson estimated the demand at 800 planes over 20 years. Each would cost about $200m.

A super jumbo would have the advantage of transporting up to double the number of passengers without increasing the demand for take-off and landing slots at crowded airports such as London's Heathrow, although it would put pressure on terminal facilities.

Boeing's strategy of making a longer version of the 747 is the cheapest way to go, probably costing less than pounds 1bn. It could also be put in service more quickly than a new design.

Because the Airbus 340, the company's largest plane, is considerably smaller, with a typical passenger load of under 300, it will be forced to build a new plane entirely from scratch at an estimated cost of up to pounds 8bn.

Mr Pierson disputed the figure but offered no price tag of his own. However, he hinted that the burden could be covered by Airbus's cash flow and private finance, and might not need the pounds 3bn from the governments of Britain, France, Germany and Spain that observers have suggested.