The Wall Street Journal has recently run several pieces on Boeing's resurgence at the expense of Airbus. Last Thursday, the article provided details of Airbus' sizable gamble on the A380.
What is very comforting to read is that Boeing learned what customers were doing- going for niche direct routes- and designed a plane for that. The 787 "Dreamliner."
Airbus, in contrast, continued to 'serve' the failed hub-spoke system, and launched an expensive program to produce the A380. As it turns out, there is little demand for the plane, even if it were not behind schedule and over budget.
Sometimes, success is just getting the fundamentals right when the other guy doesn't. Boeing excelled at the simple "blocking and tackling" of asking customers what they needed, what they were doing, and then provided a produce, the 787, tailored to those needs. Airbus did not.
As a result, Boeing's fortunes have steadily improved over the past several years (click on the chart above to see the larger version). Despite McNerney's recent arrival, and Boeing's past military program management/ethics problems, the commercial aircraft division seems to have done things right, and already begun to put Boeing on a path of consistent returns.
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