CHICAGO – Poised to give the initial go-ahead to its proposed new 7E7 Dreamliner, Boeing Co. has tentatively scheduled a meeting with its employees Tuesday followed by a news conference in the Seattle area – the leading contender to assemble the fuel-efficient jet.
The arrangements add to widespread expectations that the company’s board of directors will vote at its meeting Monday to offer the new mid-sized plane for sale to airlines – and to assemble it in Everett, Wash.
Boeing spokesman John Dern said Thursday the board is scheduled to deliberate on the 7E7 program Sunday and Monday at company headquarters in Chicago, with a final decision expected on Monday. No announcement will be made before the following day, when Boeing executives have made plans to disclose the verdict to employees in Seattle, where its commercial airlines unit is based, and then hold a news conference there “if we’ve got news to announce,” Dern said.
Speculation has been growing that initial approval of the 7E7 – which would be Boeing’s first all-new plane program since the 777 in 1990 – by the board was almost a foregone conclusion since new CEO Harry Stonecipher strongly endorsed the program after taking over from Phil Condit on Dec. 1.
The Seattle Times reported in a copyright story last week that a team of Boeing executives concluded after an eight-month nationwide search that the plane should be assembled in Everett, where the company builds its entire widebody line of 747s, 767s and 777s. That recommendation is to be formally presented to the board at its Sunday-Monday meeting.
In the meantime, Boeing has been making plans for Stonecipher to fly to Seattle on Tuesday to deliver the good news to employees, standing side by side with commercial airplanes chief Alan Mulally, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Wednesday.
Dern declined to confirm or deny the reports. “If we have news to share, we plan to announce it no sooner than Tuesday,” he said.
Other cities in the running for the 7E7 assembly site reportedly include Kinston, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; and Mobile, Ala.
Next week’s expected decision is the first of two steps needed to go ahead with the 7E7. Depending on the results of sales efforts for the plane, the board would decide next year whether to formally launch the program.
Analysts say Boeing is almost forced to go ahead with the program amid criticism that it has allowed its commercial-jet program to fall behind rival Airbus after years of failing to launch new aircraft.
“It would be equivalent to putting a ‘Going out of business’ sign on the factory gates” if they don’t go ahead with the 7E7, said Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst with consulting firm Teal Group. “That might take 15 years to happen, but Rome wasn’t burned in a day.”
He said that based on past programs, it may take only three dozen or so orders to persuade Boeing to launch the 7E7 and the Japanese already are likely to order multiple planes.
Boeing could badly use the boost a new airplane program would provide for employees and customers after a series of ethical scandals in its defense contracting business that have tainted its reputation and cost it more than $1 billion in lost contracts. Condit said he quit to keep the company from getting “bogged down” in the controversies – most notably the much-criticized government plan to acquire Boeing 767 planes for use as refueling tankers.
Boeing shares rose 69 cents to close at $39.56 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
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