Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher spent last Christmas at his St. Petersburg, Fla., home. He wasn't happy about that. Angered because key airlines like AirAsia and Air Berlin were buying rival Airbus planes, all too aware that the European manufacturer would soon be rolling out its new 555-seat, double-decker A380 jumbo liner, Stonecipher had told his salespeople he would travel anywhere in the world, even on Christmas Day, if he was needed to close a deal. Yet no one called. "The whole idea is that I will go anywhere for them," he says.
Stonecipher stayed home last month too when five European...