Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners Path: news From: drinkard@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Terrell D. Drinkard) Subject: Re: Northwest cancels Airbus X-Submission-Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:37:14 GMT References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: Boeing Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM X-Submission-Message-Id: Date: 16 Dec 92 04:19:49 PST In article hoyme@src.honeywell.com (Ken Hoyme) writes: [much deleted material about the NWA/Airbus cancelations] >.... (But then, NWA is already >deeply in debt to Airbus, since they decided to buy A320s based on a >dynamite financing package that Boeing could not match.) We here at Boeing also like to think that the Northwest, and the United, purchase of the A320 were both driven by financial considerations only. Not true. The plain facts are that the A320 flies higher, faster, and farther than the competing Boeing 737-400 while carrying a heavier load and burning less gas to boot. That isn't fuel per seat, that is trip fuel. Northwest's decision, as noted by their VP of Finance a couple of months ago, was based on superior performance and a higher acquisition cost than that of the 737. United came to pretty much the same conclusion. None of the above is intended to make little of the financial implications of each of those deals, just put it in a technical frame of reference. -- Terry drinkard@bcstec.boeing.com "Anyone who thinks they can hold the company responsible for what I say has more lawyers than sense."