They have been battling for ages, trying to one-up each other to steal business and/or gain new partners, but Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier, likes how his planes and company stack up against Boeing.
In fact, his A350, which will be competing against Boeing's Dreamliner is set to fly mid-year with delivery beginning early 2014.
And, to avoid any issues that Boeing is currently facing, he has decided to stick with a nickel-cadmium battery rather than running with a lithium-ion battery like the ones that have left the Dreamliner grounded since mid-January.
Bregier said, "lithium-ion batteries are still attractive for aviation because they weigh less for the same power, but that putting them on Airbus planes may come two years or more down the road," reported USA Today.
Though that might be the case, Boeing has found itself in a dire situation over the past several months due to the The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounding their Dreamliner on Jan. 16, after an All Nippon Airways flight had to make an emergency landing in Japan with a smoldering battery. It was a the second big-blow for the company at its "super plane"--it happened 9 days after a Jan. 7 battery fire in a Japan Airlines plane parked in Boston.
The FAA is currently reviewing the possibility to re-certify the Dreamliner and its new battery, after Boeing completed a certification flight Friday.
As Boeing continues to work on the issues, rumors have been floating around about a new 777x plane and when asked how airbus would compete with this new prototype, Bregier said, "the A350-1000 already slated for delivery in 2017 will carry just as many passengers but at 25 percent greater fuel efficiency," according to USA Today.
He Added, "to my knowledge, this is Boeing's response to the very successful A350-1000 that we have launched and started to market more aggressively...it is not easy to match and beat. The ball now is in Boeing's camp," reported USA Today.
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