Paris could be a Boeing show
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 9, 2005
That’s the jist of this Bloomberg News article, which juxtaposes Boeing’s gains since Paris ‘03 with all the recent Troubles in Toulouse.
Key Quote: “‘Airbus now faces a severe set of challenges as Boeing is mounting a victorious counterattack,’ says Richard Aboulafia, vice president of Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based aerospace consulting firm.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=ahVybczEl4VU&refer=europe
BusinessWeek says something similar, with this story that asks “has Airbus lost its mojo?”
Key Quote: “The show could highlight a growing list of woes … On June 1, Airbus acknowledged that the first deliveries of the A380 will be delayed up to six months … due to unspecified production difficulties. Then Emirates airlines, which had been expected to announce a big order for the A350 at the air show, said it was not ready to make a decision. Airbus sales chief John J. Leahy, who said earlier that he might announce more than 100 orders for the A350 in Paris, now says big orders could come ‘a week or two after.’”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938069_mz054.htm
WHAT? Emirates is delaying its A350 order? Sonuvagun, that’s what CBSMarketWatch says:
Key Quote: “‘We’re continuing to look at options for future aircraft orders, including the proposed A350 and Boeing 787 and 777-300ER/200LR variants,’ (a spokesman) said, reading from a company statement.”
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B950C1190-8736-42F9-B665-E0454BFD7F3C%7D
What Emirates wants is about a 290-seat 787, which is about 10 percent bigger than what Boeing plans with its 787-9. Boeing’s not interested in building a bigger 787. An executive told me this week that Emirates is the only airline interested in a plane that size, and besides, once you get that big, you’re overlapping into the market for the 777-200LR.
Given that, the thinking has been that Emirates will go with the bigger A350. But with the recently announced delays with that program … well, we’ll see.
Qatar’s another carrier that could make a splash next week. Reuters — quoting an anonymous source that could be anyone from a top executive to a really well-informed baggage handler — says it’s likely they’ll order Airbus too, given that they’ve got an all-Airbus fleet now.
Key Quote: “The source said there was still speculation as to how the deal will go but that it was unlikely to be split between Airbus and US rival Boeing. ‘It doesn’t make business sense to go half Boeing half Airbus because the costs of maintenance for parts and for training staff on different systems would be high.’”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10330035
And here’s a related story from Reuters:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-06-10-air-show_x.htm
In other business, here’s a story from BizWeek’s Stan Holmes on how Boeing’s progressing with its efforts to learn how to build with composites.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938037_mz011.htm
I talked with 787 chief Mike Bair about some of these same issues this week. Boeing was working on the first wing box, he said. Overall, the program is not exactly on schedule, but there’s nothing he’s “going to lose an inordinate amount of sleep over.”
Gotta say, he comes across as very relaxed and confident when you push him on whether he’ll deliver the program on time. We’ll see whether he’s that way 12 months from now.
Oh, and one more thing: Boeing’s got a press release out this morning, announcing that one of its 777-200LR flight test planes has arrived in Paris, on the second leg of what will be a 20-city “Worldliner” world tour. (Btw, I volunteered to be about 195 pounds of ballast for the trip, but apparently they already had all the dead weight they needed.)
Anyway … what caught my eye was this paragraph:
“Later this year (Boeing said) the Worldliner will attempt to set a new world record for distance traveled nonstop by a commercial airplane. The current record — 10,823 nautical miles — was set in 1997 by the 777-200ER. Details for the record flight — DURING WHICH THE AIRPLANE IS TO FLY FOR APPROXIMATELY 24 HOURS (that’s me shouting) — will be released in weeks ahead.”
A 24-hour test flight? Oh my heck.
