IHT: Airbus faces turbulent year as the dollar declines

IHT: Airbus faces turbulent year as the dollar declines: "One example: The planemaker aims to cut the time for final assembly of single-aisle A320-series aircraft to 25 days from 40 days, partly by keeping each aircraft in progress at one location rather than pushing it along during assembly from a first to a second and then a third station.
.
'There are many things we do better' than Boeing, he said, 'but on this particular point, they assemble a plane in less time than we do. But we'll match that.'
.
A Boeing spokesman, Thomas Brabant declined via e-mail to disclose its plane-building times.
.
Forgeard said his cost target would be 'tough to obtain because it's harder to squeeze costs out of companies that are working at full speed than at those with bloated work forces.' He added, 'We need to do some re-engineering - that is, rethink the manner in which we do things to arrive at cost savings.'
.
Klaus Breil of Adig Investments in Frankfurt, said, 'Everyone was skeptical that they could be equal with Boeing, and they've achieved that.'
.
Forgeard was wooed from the top job at Lagardere's Matra Defense unit to run Airbus in 1998. At the time, Boeing sold two of every three large airliners worldwide. Airbus had no aircraft seating more than 400 passengers to compete with Boeing's 747.
.
Five years later, Airbus has said 2003 deliveries about equaled or topped the 303 planes of 2002 and were down 7 percent from the record 325 aircraft in 2001. Boeing delivered 280 planes in 2003, a 26 percent drop from 2002 and down 46 percent from 525 planes in 2001.
.
Forgeard aims to maintain that lead with the help of the new 555-seat A380, which will be the world's largest airliner when it enters service in 2006.
.
Bloomberg News "