The decisions that made it
The Standards War · Moat & Competition
Airbus Didn't Catch Boeing in 2019. It Caught Boeing in 1988 and Won Three Times.
The story says two 737 MAX crashes handed Airbus the lead. The story is wrong. Boeing out-delivered Airbus every year from 2012 to 2018. By mid-2021 Airbus held 65% of the single-aisle backlog — a gap the crashes accelerated but did not create.
8 min
The Bet · Decision Forks
Airbus Bet €15 Billion the World Would Fly Through Hubs. The World Flew Around Them.
Airbus launched the A380 in 2000 to dominate a hub-and-spoke future it forecast at nearly 1,200 very-large aircraft by 2022. It built 251, killed the programme in 2019, and lost to planes with half the engines.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
There Are Only Two Companies on Earth That Can Build a Big Jet. That's the Moat - and the Fragility.
The Airbus-Boeing duopoly looks unbreakable, and in 2024 Airbus delivered 766 aircraft to Boeing's 348. But the moat was built on subsidies the WTO ruled illegal on both sides - and a Chinese rival shipped just 12 planes.
8 min