Airbus Americas Inc. spent $220,000 in the first quarter to lobby on issues including legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration and on a massive Air Force order for aerial refueling tankers, according to a disclosure report filed April 18.
Airbus, the leading rival to Boeing Co. in the airplane business, is owned by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., or EADS.
EADS and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., recently beat out Boeing for a $35 billion contract to supply the Air Force with 179 air-to-air refueling tankers that will be based on an Airbus plane. The deal is the first of three Air Force awards worth as much $100 billion to replace the entire fleet of nearly 600 tankers over the next 30 years.
Boeing, which has been supplying refueling tankers to the Air Force for 50 years, has filed a formal protest of the decision with the Government Accountability Office. And Boeing supporters in Congress have hauled Air Force officials up to Capitol Hill multiple times in recent months to explain their decision to award the contract to a team that includes a European company.
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