Airbus Cuts Through Headwinds into Japan
Airbus’s first firm order for A380s from a Japanese customer last
Airbus COO for customers John Leahy (l) and Airbus president and CEO Tom Enders (r) flank Skymark Airlines president Shinichi Nishikubo during the celebration of Airbus’s first sale of an A380 in Japan. [Photo: Airbus]
Airbus COO for customers John Leahy (l) and Airbus president and CEO Tom Enders (r) flank Skymark Airlines president Shinichi Nishikubo during the celebration of Airbus’s first sale of an A380 in Japan. [Photo: Airbus]

Airbus’s first firm order for A380s from a Japanese customer last week not only added a significant tally to its backlog, but it might have represented a watershed event in the company’s efforts to loosen Boeing’s stranglehold on the lucrative market.

The contract, a firm order for four superjumbos from Skymark Airlines, came some six years since Airbus last drew an order for civil airplanes from a Japanese airline. A country famously bound by its traditions, Japan and its legacy airlines have ordered Boeing products almost exclusively for some five decades. Indeed, it probably should come as no surprise that it took a non-legacy, low-fare carrier to break with convention.