In visits this week to a major U.S. airline and a large American aerospace company, the Chief Executive Officer of Airbus said the new 555-passenger A380 will create up to 60-thousand jobs in America and the Airbus fleet in North America will double in the next two years.
Noël Forgeard is in the United States this week talking to various Airbus customer and vendor companies as part of the "Best of All Worlds" program, which celebrates the partnership between Airbus and organizations around the globe that help the commercial aircraft manufacturer bring excellence to the industry.
In Cleveland, addressing the employees of Goodrich Aerospace, which was recently awarded the main landing gear contract for the Airbus A380, Forgeard said, "The A380 program will generate 22,000 aerospace jobs for American companies" and their extended economic impact will result in another 38,000 jobs being created.
Forgeard also noted that new A380 business would contribute one billion dollars to the U.S. economy on top of the $5 billion Airbus currently supplies each year through its work with more than 800 U.S. firms and 100,000 American workers.
He said about 700 Airbus aircraft are flying with U.S. and Canadian customers today and that number is expected to double over the next two years. Just five years ago, Airbus delivered an average of one aircraft per month to its North American customers. Today it is delivering about two each week to those customers.
Goodrich Aerospace pegged the A380 landing gear contract at 2 to 3 billion dollars over 20 years. Since its launch late last year, Airbus has sold 62 of the double-deck aircraft to eight customers. Forgeard said the company expects to increase the A380 order book to about 100 orders by this year's end. When it enters service in 2006, the aircraft will be the world's largest airliner, seating 555 passengers in three classes.
In Chicago, to celebrate the delivery of the 100th Airbus aircraft to United Airlines, Forgeard told a group of some 200 local business leaders that more of the content of United's Airbus airplanes is produced in the U.S. than any other single country. About 40 percent of the airline's A319 and A320 fleet is "red, white and blue" Forgeard said. United is now the single largest operator of the two aircraft types.
To date, Airbus has 177 customers around the world with nearly 9,000 aircraft in operation or on order.
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Airbus CEO Visits U.S. in "Partner" Tour ; Touts Impact Of Airbus On American Business
