Airbus announced an average 4.4 percent increase in its aircraft catalogue prices on Tuesday, citing high production investments and a weak dollar. The move comes weeks after rival planemaker Boeing announced an average 5.2 percent price increase. Airbus and Boeing, which both saw a sharp recovery in business last year, often sell planes at a discount to catalogue prices, but Airbus sales chief John Leahy said on Monday that both revenues and market pricing were improving.
Airbus had 52 percent of the world market in net orders and 52.5 percent in deliveries in 2010, according to data released on Monday. Airbus is squeezed financially by a weak dollar because planes are sold in dollars and enter the EADS accounts in euros - a currency in which it also has a high proportion of its production costs.
The overall price hike includes an 8.4 percent increase in the value of the Airbus A380, which brings the catalogue value of the world's largest airliner to $375 million. Airbus said this reflected the plane's capacity to generate revenue for airlines, but the planemaker has also been struggling to bring down unbudgeted production costs in the past year.
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