The Boeing Co. has sold two 787 VIP jets that will have passenger cabins as big as a four-bedroom house.
It is Boeing’s first order for a 787 business jet, said spokeswoman Sandy Angers.
“We think it’s going to be an awesome business jet,” she said.
Boeing does not disclose any information about its business jet buyers. The company revealed the deal earlier this week when it updated its year-to-date orders totals.
Boeing and General Electric formed a joint venture to sell a VIP version of 737s in 1996. To date, it has taken orders for 108 BBJs and BBJ-2s, which are based on 737-700 and 737-800 passenger planes.
The program has been a success, analysts say, because it has allowed Boeing to sell more than 100 737s at full price to individual customers. When airlines buy the jets, they buy en mass and typically receive discounts of up to 33 percent.
These are the first orders for the new 787 VIP, which will be based on the 787-9, the stretched version of Boeing’s new Dreamliner, set to enter service with airlines in 2010.
The new VIP jets will dwarf the earlier BBJs. The 787 VIP will have about 2,300 square feet of cabin space, Angers said – almost three times the square footage of the original BBJs and more than double that of the larger BBJ-2s.
“Think of it as a typical four-bedroom, 21/2 -bathroom house,” she said.
The long-range 787s will be able to fly almost 12,000 miles non-stop – essentially anywhere in the world – with up to 75 passengers, Angers said.
Boeing thinks there will be a good market for the VIP 787s, she said. Business jets are status symbols among the wealthy elite, and BBJ buyers “like to have the coolest thing on the block.”
Earlier this year, Boeing said that 40 percent of BBJ buyers have been private individuals, while 37 percent were ordered by government heads of state. The remainder are operated by corporations or charter operators.
Boeing has a list price for the 787-9 of $178.5 million and up. But that’s far from the actual cost of buying a Boeing business jet. For that price, Boeing will deliver a standard plane to the customer, who then must take it to a business jet completion center to have it custom-finished to their standards.
Boeing reports that it has taken a net of 518 orders for new jets so far this year. Of those, 400 have been 737s.
Boeing’s also taken orders for 77 787s, 24 777s, 13 747s and four 767s.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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