based Boeing Co., like Airbus, expects overall air passenger traffic to increase threefold over the next two decades. But Boeing forecasts only "a few hundred" sales of very large planes, as travelers reject stopovers in favor of direct service aboard smaller long-range jets _ like its fuel-efficient 7E7 Dreamliner, due to enter service in 2008. "The data shows unquestionably that passengers, when they can, want to fly from wherever they are to wherever they're going, without having to connect in a hub," said Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher. "The A380 is flying into the headwind of reality." But Boeing, which delivered 285 planes in 2004 to Airbus' 320, is hedging its bets. It announced plans last year for a larger, 450-seat 747, despite having dismissed the case for a bigger plane since Airbus began discussing the concept in 1991. A launch decision is expected in mid-2005. Whichever way the wind blows in Toulouse on Tuesday, the A380 seems certain to become a milestone in civil aviation history alongside the 747 and Concorde. Unlike the supersonic Concorde, however, whose claim to fame was how fast it crossed the Atlantic, this latest fruit of European aerospace cooperation will ultimately be judged on how fast it makes money.
