When Airbus and Boeing become friends!
They may be rivals on the air, but Airbus and Boeing are actually friends on the ground - or at least they’re trying to be!
Shortly after France-based Airbus announced the successful test of its new A321 LR single-aisle plane yesterday, Chicago-headquartered Boeing took to Twitter to offer its warm congratulations. Boeing added that "Competition makes us all better!"
And these 2 conversations between the two rivals has attracted over 3000 likes and 700 retweets.
This is the first time where Boeing has communicated with Airbus publicly following their dispute over the CSeries.
Boeing has apparently lost its battle against Bombardier and Airbus when the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled against the company over its dispute about the Canadian CS100 to be sold to Delta Air Lines.
Boeing’s rival, Airbus, had been providing assistance throughout the lawsuit. This created tensions between two aerospace giants. And what’s more - Bombardier had been making aggressive statements after its cooperations with Airbus, describing Boeing to be a “loser”.
In response to Airbus’ investment on 100 seater jets, Boeing has been in talks with Brazilian Embraer to take shares of the private jet market. Boeing also criticised Airbus for making the wrong decision, claiming in a statement that it is unfair for Airbus and Bombardier to receive massive fundings from their respective governments.
The bitter dispute between Boeing and Airbus even escalated when Delta Airlines hinted that they chose Airbus over Boeing as narrowbody replacement as they’re not pleased with their national manufacturer. Delta placed an order for 100 A321neos with an option of 100 more, which is a major win for Airbus over rival Boeing 737 MAX. Delta’s firm stand against Boeing offered us a glimpse of the enormous strain that the case has created between the two aviation giants. Good to know that at least Airbus and Boeing are no longer mad at each other.
... and there’s much more humorous disputes between Airbus and Boeing!
Last year a Boeing 787 test plane drew a giant Dreamliner above the United States performing ETOPS testing on the new Rolls Royce Trent 1000 TEN engine, which will power the 787-10. The response of Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer didn’t last long. At 1:00 pm an Airbus A350 took off at Toulouse Airport and flew around France for 10 hours to draw this middle finger...
Fortunately, this hasn't created many disputes but just some smirks!
This is not the first time that the rivals have congratulated each other for their success.
Boeing celebrated their 100th year in business two years ago. During that time the two aviation giants were both fighting to notch orders and claim supremacy from Farnborough Air Show. The Boeing 737MAX vs. Airbus A320NEO battle is heated. Both companies were also competing for toe to toe for 747-400 and 777-200 replacement orders. Boeing’s 777-9X and Airbus A350-1000 offer unique features to try to one-up the other.
Airbus, wanting to go gain notice, released this video above where Airbus employees describing how the two are “fighting for every order.” While we are expecting the manufacturer to convince people why French planes are better, they suddenly congratulated Boeing for 100 Years Strong, even anticipating another 100 years of friendly competition!
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