Airbus struggles to loosen Boeing’s grip on Fortress Japan

Airbus appears to have been pushed back once again in landmark efforts to break Boeing’s grip on Japan’s two largest airlines, which need to buy billions of dollars worth of planes in the next decade.

In Japan, where buying American jets once helped take the sting out of trade deficit tensions, Boeing dominates with around an 80 per cent market share. Flag carrier Japan Airlines has yet to buy an Airbus aircraft even though the political prodding to purchase Boeing jets partially built in Japan has lessened.

This year, Airbus finally spied a breach in Boeing’s Japanese fortress.

Glitches with Boeing’s 787s, which both JAL and rival All Nippon Airways have put at the centre of their fleet planning, created an opening for it to offer its just-finished A350 to replace around 50 of the airlines’ ageing Boeing 777s from 2020. Sticking with Made in America could make the Japanese carriers Boeing launch customer once again for an only-on-paper jet, the 777X, that it has yet to green light.

That window may, however, be closing as Boeing launches a charm counter-offensive to blunt Airbus and shore up its Japanese base. Boeing’s order to its sales team from its Seattle commercial aircraft base is “do everything you can to win this order”, a source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.

Airbus got a foothold at ANA, which operates Airbus A320s on short-haul services, but hasn’t scored an order there since 2005. ANA’s medium and long-haul fleet consists only of Boeing planes, and it is the world’s largest operator of the Dreamliner. Airbus’s most notable success has been among Japan’s emerging discount carriers, including an order by Skymark Airlines in 2011 for six super-jumbo A380s.