SEATTLE – The Boeing Co. says it’s talking with airlines about a stretch version of its new, fuel-efficient 787 jetliner.
“We are talking to customers seriously about doing a stretch of the (787)-9, and I would say it’s highly likely that we will do that someday, but customers and timing are still to be determined,” Yvonne Leach, spokeswoman for the 787 program, said Tuesday.
Leach said Boeing is talking to Emirates Airlines, Qantas Airways Ltd. and other airlines about the larger jet. She would not identify any of the other airlines or say how many had expressed interest.
Boeing has been reluctant to commit to a bigger 787 because it could steal sales away from an extended-range version of its hot-selling 777.
But industry analysts say it’s smart for Boeing to offer a larger 787, since rival Airbus’ planned A350-900 is being designed to compete with both the 787-9 and the 777-200ER.
“The only thing worse than cannibalizing your own market is having your competitor do it,” said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with Teal Group based in Fairfax, Va.
The largest plane in the new 787 family, the 787-9 will carry 250 to 290 passengers more than 10,000 miles when it enters service in 2010, two years after airlines begin flying the smaller, slightly shorter-range 787-8.
If Boeing goes ahead with a 787-10, as company insiders and industry experts have dubbed it, Leach said it would be comparable in passenger capacity and range to the 777-200ER, which can carry about 300 passengers about 8,900 miles.
Emirates Airlines, a growing carrier in the United Arab Emirates, ordered 42 777s in November, but has pressured Boeing for a bigger 787.
Qantas Airways Ltd. of Australia ordered 45 787s last week, plus options and purchase rights for more, and has said it would be interested in a larger 787 if Boeing built it.
Scott Hamilton, an analyst with Leeham Companies LLC in suburban east Seattle, said the 787-10 would need to seat enough extra passengers to boost airlines’ revenue but not so many that it would shorten the plane’s range.
Because talks remain preliminary, Boeing has not indicated when it will decide whether to offer the 787-10. On Tuesday, Leach said 2012 would be the earliest the plane could enter airline service.
Chicago-based Boeing has said its twin-engine 787s will be more fuel-efficient than any commercial jet flying today, in part because they’ll be made largely from composite materials, which are lighter and more durable than aluminum.
To date, Boeing has 241 firm orders for the 787. In addition to the 787-8 and 787-9, the company has promised the 787-3, which will carry 290 to 330 passengers about 4,000 miles. It’s scheduled to enter service in 2009.
The company’s shift toward satisfying airlines’ demand for a bigger 787 was first reported in Tuesday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Alan Mulally, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told the P-I, “I think someday we will make another stretch, the 787-10, for sure, because it is so compelling economically.”
Mulally also said the company would gradually hire new workers and ramp up assembly work to boost production so it can fulfill the 800-plus orders it received this year.
Boeing ran into serious problems during a production speed-up in the late 1990s, when some planes went through assembly lines faster than suppliers could ship parts.
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