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The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 shows why a golden age for the world’s aircraft duopoly may be over
埃塞俄比亚航空公司ET302航班的坠毁足以表明，全球飞机双头垄断的黄金时代可能已经结束
When a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed near Addis Ababa after take-off on March10th,157 people lost their lives. It did not take long for the human tragedy to raise questions about what went wrong. That has fed a crisis of trust in Boeing and in the FAA, the American regulator which, even as its counterparts grounded the MAX 8, left it flying for three days before President Donald Trump stepped in, suspending all MAX planes.
3月10日，一架波音737 MAX 8型客机起飞后，在亚的斯亚贝巴附近坠毁，157人全部遇难。没过多久，这场人间悲剧引发了对问题根源的思考。这加剧了人们对波音和联邦航空局的信任危机，联邦航空局是美国的监管机构，当各国都停飞MAX 8时，联邦航空局仍然让其正常飞了三天，直到总统唐纳德·特朗普介入，才停飞了所有MAX型号飞机。
Mr Trump noted that Boeing was “an incredible company”. In fact the crash is a warning. After a 20-year boom, one of the West’s most sophisticated industries faces a difficult future.
特朗普指出，波音是“一家极好的公司”。事实上，这次坠机是一个警告。在历经20年繁荣之后，这个西方红极一时的行业步履维艰。
The MAX 8 is one of Boeing’s most advanced models. Until this week it has been a commercial triumph, with 370 in operation and 4,700 more on order. The 737 series makes up a third of Boeing’s profits and most of its order book. That performance caps an extraordinary two decades for the Boeing and Airbus duopoly, as a growing global middle class has taken to the air. Over 21,000 aircraft are in use; a new plane is delivered every five hours. Boeing has slimmed down its supply chain and Airbus has asserted its independence from European governments. That has led to a shareholder bonanza. Their combined market value of $310bn is six times bigger than in 2000. And their overall safety record has been good, with one fatal accident per 2.5m flights last year.
MAX 8是波音公司最先进的机型之一。本周前，波音公司在商业上一直都很成功，已有370架投入运营，还接到4700架公司的订单。737系列承担了波音三分之一的利润和大部分订单。随着越来越多的全球中产阶级乘机飞空，波音和空客这两家双头垄断企业达到了20年来辉煌业绩的顶峰。正在投入使用的飞机超过2.1万架；每5小时就有一架新飞机交付。波音公司已经缩减了其供应链，而空客公司则宣称其独立于欧洲政府。这给股东带来了滚滚财源。两家公司合并是市值达3100亿美元，是2000年的6倍。整体安全记录也很好，去年每250万次航班发生一起致命事故。
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