When did he change the first “i” in his surname to an “*”? I’d love to see his work pattern – imagine explaining to your bosses “Err..can have I have the next couple of months off as I’m doing a world tour with my band” or “Discovery’s paying me some more money to fly in other aircraft, so I need to have some time off!”

Laurie Berryman, Emirates Manager UK North and Scotland, said: “We have been delighted with the success of the Glasgow-Dubai route. No other Emirates UK route has ever performed so well in its first three years.

Err..if their MAN service got off to that start, we would be talking a load factor of at least 300% since that service started as a 2 weekly A310 via FRA and then went to 3 weekly! Therefore, don’t read any significance into that statement apart from the initial bit about being delighed with the success!

Moderators please correct the title !

To what? Perhaps “Boeing wets itself as A350XWB looks pretty good bet to wipe out 777s in airline fleets”?

Wouldn’t be the 1st time Airbus has caused Boeing to do something they either never thought of themselves or were loathe to do.

Hope you’ll allow time for this answer to be developed! (Please can I have A380 delays worth of time ?;) )

House of Commons Written Answer:

Source: Hansard

Asked by: Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port & Neston, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the cost (a) gross and (b) net after loan repayments was of support by the UK Government to Airbus programmes in each year since 1985.

Answered by: Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Industry and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry)

Launch investment is a risk-sharing Government investment in the design and development of civil aerospace projects in the UK. It is not a loan. The investment is repayable at a real rate of return, usually via levies on sales of the product.

The amounts paid to Airbus in launch investment and the amounts received from Airbus in repayment of launch investment in each of the years from 1984-85 to 2005-06 inclusive are set out in the following table, with the net figures (Receipts-Payments) in the final column.

£ million
Year… Paid.. Rec’d. Diff
1984-85 0046.5 0000.0 -0046.5
1985-86 0073.0 0000.0 -0073.0
1986-87 0086.0 0000.0 -0086.0
1987-88 0044.5 0000.0 -0044.5
1988-89 0087.8 0000.0 -0087.8
1989-90 0122.5 0010.0 -0112.5
1990-91 0134.0 0034.0 -0100.0
1991-92 0003.5 0055.4 -0018.1
1992-93 0028.6 0040.9 +0012.3
1993-94 0000.0 0029.4 +0029.4
1994-95 0000.0 0019.2 +0019.2
1995-96 0000.0 0029.3 +0029.3
1996-97 0000.0 0042.7 +0042.7
1997-98 0000.0 0085.4 +0085.4
1998-99 0000.0 0134.6 +0134.6
1999-00 0000.0 0167.4 +0167.4
2000-01 0000.0 0119.7 +0119.7
2001-02 0136.0 0103.4 -0032.6
2002-03 0139.0 0088.7 -0050.3
2003-04 0255.0 0078.3 -0176.7
2004-05 0000.0 0091.7 +0091.7
2005-06 0000.0 0110.5 +0110.5
Total.. 1226.4 1240.5 +0014.1

Therefore in that 20 year period, more was repaid than lent. Trying to find more recent figures.

——-

This extract from Hansard 06 Dec 2006

“I entirely agree with the hon. Member for Northavon that Airbus is a success story. I did not recognise his figures and if I am wrong, I will write to him. The figures that I have for launch investment are in the region of £1.2 billion and the return has been around £1.3 billion, of which £530 million went into the A380 and £700 million into the A320, the A330 and the A340.”

Hansard 25th May 2005

“, repayable launch investment is a sensible decision for the British taxpayer because it is repayable. For example, the Government supplied £250 million in repayable launch investment towards the A320. Repayments from Airbus UK to the Treasury now total more than twice that amount and continue to grow with each aircraft, with royalties being paid.”

[QUOTE=J Boyle;1108416

Who would lose the “development costs” funds?
Airbus or it’s various state sponsors who gave them loans repayable if and when the plane makes a profit?
[/QUOTE]

The money is repayable whether or not the aircaft is making a profit – I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to find some docs on the web about the paying back of the loans. I daresay Airbus would love it if they didn’t have to keep on forking out money on A320s as I’m led to believe that they have repaid substantially more than the amount of money lent to them for that project (err..that sentiment seems rather reminiscent of the company I work for!) .

and if you read a similar thread on airliners.net, you’ll discover that “ordinary” members of the public have got DVDs without Sir Woolly Pully in it. Perhaps BA have doctored those DVDs as well:rolleyes:

allegedly starts in 2 weeks time