TOKYO/PARIS, Oct 16 (Reuters) When Japan Airlines Co broke with decades of tradition by buying long-haul jets from Europe’s Airbus rather than US rival Boeing Co,it informed the Japanese government by email without any prior warning.
The deal, worth 9.5 billion dollar at list prices, was a major blow for Boeing, which holds more than 80 per cent of Japan’s commercial-aviation market and has been intertwined with US-Japan diplomatic relations since shortly after World War Two.
But the way JAL communicated the decision – with a curt message delivered to officials’ inboxes just as it was publicly announcing the deal, according to Japanese government sources and a person close to the airline – was just as momentous.
For weeks the deal, initially a draft document, had been the most closely held secret in the aerospace business. Now, JAL’s decision to focus on cold business logic revealed a new distance between the national flag carrier and the Tokyo government.
It also sharpens the political implications of the choice facing rival ANA Holdings Inc, which in coming months is to make a similarly decision on replacing its ageing Boeing long-haul fleet with more fuel-efficient planes.
JAL’s October 7 order for 31 wide-body A350 jets was a coup for Airbus, which had never directly sold a jet to the airline.
Analysts say the chances have increased that All Nippon Airways will buy around 30 A350s, Airbus’s first mostly carbon-composite jetliner, in preference to Boeing’s 777X, for the same business reasons that JAL did. ANA’s decision is expected by early 2014.
But shifting political allegiances following JAL’s bankruptcy three years ago, which brought a change in company leadership, have meant that the flag carrier is no longer under the same government sway that has guided major aerospace decisions throughout the postwar period, say people close to both airlines. ANA, by contrast, is now close to the ruling party, and may come under greater pressure to buy Boeing.
The head of a prominent leasing company with links to both planemakers told Reuters ANA would probably select the 777X.
The diplomatic picture is complicated by Japan’s talks on
A free trade deal with the European Union, which Airbus executives believe could exert a countervailing influence in its favour.
(AGENCIES)
&&&&
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel