Boeing e Airbus: le complessità del duopolio più efficiente di sempre

The aircraft market has been a case of study ever since. It was first dominated exclusively by the American company Boeing until the incoming of the European firm Airbus in the ‘70s. Since that moment, the two aircraft manufacturers have fiercely competed in the large civil aircraft (LCA) market, creating a duopoly with characteristics unique in its kind. Actually, Boeing has never really accepted competition from Airbus due to shady subsidies European Governments have given Airbus to finance its airplanes. This led the United States’ Government to file a Dispute Settlement Understanding action in 2004 against the European Communities in the World Trade Organization. This dissertation aims to highlight the reasons why competition between Boeing and Airbus resulted in the outbreak of the longest dispute in the World Trade Organization history and, in order to give the clearest image possible, the thesis first explains how the two companies had become the only players in the aircraft manufacturing industry, by looking at their history, then enlightens how this duopoly works and lastly it analyses various developments of the trade dispute.