評論
打印
Leaders
《社論》版塊
The aircraft industry
飛機業
Plane truths
飛機真相
The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 shows why a golden age for the world’s aircraft duopoly may be over
埃塞俄比亞航空公司ET302航班的墜毀足以表明，全球飛機雙頭壟斷的黃金時代可能已經結束
When a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed near Addis Ababa after take-off on March10th,157 people lost their lives. It did not take long for the human tragedy to raise questions about what went wrong. That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA, the American regulator which, even as its counterparts grounded the MAX 8, left it flying for three days before President Donald Trump stepped in, suspending all MAX planes.
3月10日，一架波音737 MAX 8型客機起飛后，在亞的斯亞貝巴附近墜毀，157人全部遇難。沒過多久，這場人間悲劇引發了對問題根源的思考。這加劇了人們對波音和聯邦航空局的信任危機，聯邦航空局是美國的監管機構，當各國都停飛MAX 8時，聯邦航空局仍然讓其正常飛了三天，直到總統唐納德·特朗普介入，才停飛了所有MAX型號飛機。
Mr Trump noted that Boeing was “an incredible company”. In fact the crash is a warning. After a 20-year boom, one of the West’s most sophisticated industries faces a difficult future.
特朗普指出，波音是“一家極好的公司”。事實上，這次墜機是一個警告。在歷經20年繁榮之后，這個西方紅極一時的行業步履維艱。
The MAX 8 is one of Boeing’s most advanced models. Until this week it has been a commercial triumph, with 370 in operation and 4,700 more on order. The 737 series makes up a third of Boeing’s profits and most of its order book. That performance caps an extraordinary two decades for the Boeing and Airbus duopoly, as a growing global middle class has taken to the air. Over 21,000 aircraft are in use; a new plane is delivered every five hours. Boeing has slimmed down its supply chain and Airbus has asserted its independence from European governments. That has led to a shareholder bonanza. Their combined market value of $310bn is six times bigger than in 2000. And their overall safety record has been good, with one fatal accident per 2.5m flights last year.
MAX 8是波音公司最先進的機型之一。本周前，波音公司在商業上一直都很成功，已有370架投入運營，還接到4700架公司的訂單。737系列承擔了波音三分之一的利潤和大部分訂單。隨著越來越多的全球中產階級乘機飛空，波音和空客這兩家雙頭壟斷企業達到了20年來輝煌業績的頂峰。正在投入使用的飛機超過2.1萬架；每5小時就有一架新飛機交付。波音公司已經縮減了其供應鏈，而空客公司則宣稱其獨立于歐洲政府。這給股東帶來了滾滾財源。兩家公司合并是市值達3100億美元，是2000年的6倍。整體安全記錄也很好，去年每250萬次航班發生一起致命事故。
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