Posted on 05/06/2005 10:30:44 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
New Delhi, India, May. 6 (UPI) -- When U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta came calling to India earlier this year, France failed to read the meaning of his trip. A few days later, India's international carrier, Air India, inked a fledging $7-billion deal with Boeing to supply 50 aircrafts. The Boeing order has left the rival Airbus Industrie out in the cold, and the French company is crying foul over the deal, demanding a probe into the Air India order. Paris has stepped into the controversy saying Boeing's deal smacked of more than business interests.
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. "They (the French) are acting as sore losers. You can't go around making such allegations," a senior official told Indo Asian News Service on condition of anonymity. "Any deal can be turned into a can of worms" and added there could be similar charges against Indian Airlines' decision last year to acquire 43 Airbus planes. India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said Air-India's decision to go for Boeing aircraft was neither based on geo-political consideration nor did the ministry direct it to do so. "I can assure you that it was a purely techno-economic consideration."
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The U.S. manufacturer has also stepped up its information campaign to justify the deal. "Common sense will tell you that there is nothing in their charges, nor is there any value to it," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes Senior Vice President Dinesh A. Keskar. "I can say anything, the Airbus guys can stand here and say whatever they want, but the point is why and where airlines are putting their money," ----
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For now, Boeing is going to dominate Indian skies, and Airbus is sulking.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Put some ice on it.
You know, I think we're to hard on the Frogs.............NAY! BAWAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAA...GO BOEING GO!!
America hates a loser, and we have a special Hell for SORE losers.
Poor little Frenchies...
Let them take it to the UN.
This story is into its second week. The French should shut up and work on other customers. There's no way in hell the Indians are going to buy another Airbus now...
How can the French demand a probe into a deal involving two others countries? Losers.
My kid has a shirt with a picture outline of a red, white and blue Texas on it and the caption say, "Texas, it's bigger than France." He wears it all the time. :)
How long before the EU raises a WTO complaint about this?
In countries like France, the concept of a free market is all but dead. Despite the WTO, France, Germany, and the rest of old Europe continue to engage in protectionism. How many companies in Old Europe are being propped up by government subsidies? Ahhh, but exit Europe and there is no Eurocentric protectionism to prop up the AirBus myth that it is a TRUE competitor to Boeing. Boeing and AirBus go head to head, Boeing wins and France cries "Foul." It is no wonder, France is used to winning in a rigged game and fooling itself into thinking that it is a real victory.
Absolutely, but it seems like that is where we are at. Everytime a European company loses a bid or does not sell a product, they are crying foul or that it is unfair. I am sick and tired of the French. Another interesting piece in that article was the implication that the French expect, as a matter of right, to supply the Indian Air Force with their fighter jets. AS IF!! The Mirage is just not the fighter the F-16 and F-18 are. Yet, it is just because the French are so superior that they are owed a contract?
I really hope this pisses the Indian Government off so much that they never purchase another European jet again.
It seems that is what Airbus is deliberately doing. It'll be 20 years before they sell anything in India again.
heh he heh.. Boeing rocks!! take that France. Go sell your airbuses to the arabs... lmao
I forget the customer, I think it was Korean, and Airbus was threatening trade sanctions or excessive tarrifs if they did not buy from them. Anyone remember this?
That could be part of the reason we've done better w/ India lately. No one in this country expects them to give us business as our birthright.
The beating our automakers took from the Japanese a few years back cured us of such hubris.
I'd be frantically flipping through my frog translation book to find how to say "Take a flying leap @#$%^&*(s".
Theres a fine line between chutzpah and idiocy, and I think Airbus crosses that line.
Looks like someone threw France under the Air Bus.
They get put in a Parisian home for the elderly for the entire month of August.
THAT IS FUNNY
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