We are seeing the rapid retirement of a legendary name in aviation. Before long there will be no aircraft flying commercial service with the “Douglas” name . The graveyards are already full of these aircraft.
Even as this poignant moment passes, looking back, who benefited from the demise of Douglas? Let’s look at a few key markets.
The following chart shows that within the US, the winner was Boeing. (Note all 2013 data is through 2Q13.)
In Europe, it was Airbus which took up the Douglas share.
In the Middle East it appears Airbus won again, but with a strong 2013 showing for Boeing.
In the Asia-Pacific market, it looks like a close race between Airbus and Boeing, but we think perhaps Boeing has the lead.
Finally in the Latin American market it looks like Airbus took the Douglas share.
It was without question the A300/310 that dug the grave for both Tri-Jet makers, Douglas and Lockheed, and it is the A330 that is completing this takeover in the sector of large twin-isles.
If you look for the bumps in the charts you will see that that is hapening pretty much everywhere. It would become a lot more obvious when you had the three makers put in a different order: Douglas – Airbus – Boeing.