When Bruno Le Maire admits to preferring to “fly an Airbus rather than a Boeing”

Bruno Le Maire is not only going to make friends across the Atlantic. While Boeing is shaken by a multitude of theft incidents on its aircraft, the French Minister of Economy and Finance has further pressed the American aircraft manufacturer. From Berlin, where he delivered a speech this Tuesday at the “EUROPE 2024” conference, the number two in the government directly referred to the black series experienced by Boeing.

“In the 20th century, Europe manufactured the best machine tools, the best planes, the best cars, the best chemicals. It continues to produce the best planes, dear Guillaume, by far,” he began, to the attention of Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus, present in the audience. And Bruno Le Maire continued: “I prefer the Airbus situation to that of Boeing, and I now prefer flying an Airbus to flying a Boeing.” “My family cares about me too,” he added, to laughter from the audience, his little dig even earning him applause.

The American press agency Bloomberg, specializing in finance, took up the French minister's statements in an article, estimating that he had “entered dangerous diplomatic territory by declaring that he would hesitate to fly on a plane of Boeing because it values ​​life.

Questioned subsequently by a German journalist as part of this conference, Guillaume Faury refused to rejoice in the concerns of his number one rival. “What I learn as a lesson for Airbus is humility. I am not happy about my competitor's problems, because it is not good for the industry in general,” replied the boss of the European aircraft manufacturer. For Guillaume Faury, the bad situation encountered by Boeing is an opportunity for Airbus “to learn, to improve and to continue to do better”.