Airbus Woes Cloud Presence At International Show

It wasn't long ago -- just last year, in fact -- when it was Boeing that was struggling to compete with the momentum of its rival, Airbus, at the annual international airshow in Europe.

In fact, at the 2005 Paris show... Airbus claimed almost twice the orders its American competitor did, 280 to 146... but that was then, and this is now.

Rumor has it that at this year's show -- held in Farnborough, England -- Boeing will be the company to beat... as the company is expected to earn several orders, some of which Boeing may not have gotten if things were going over at Airbus right now.

Farnborough comes at a tough time for Airbus, and to its parent company, EADS -- which has lost more than a third of its market value in the wake of delays to the A380... a stock scandal...and shakeups at the top of the management structure.

In fact, Airbus is coming off its hardest month in recent history... not exactly the best time for the company to have to face the public.

As analyst Richard Aboulafia told Reuters recently... "You wonder how much of the show will be people just walking over and giving a good, solid kick to Airbus."

It could be argued that a good solid kick is just what Airbus needs -- especially as the industry delivered a similar statement last year to Boeing, which was then reeling from the resignation of former CEO Harry Stonecipher. And look what's happened since...

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.farnborough.com/