EVERETT — The Boeing Co. believes it will sell as many as 500 7E7s before the jet ever takes its first flight in 2007, executives said Wednesday.
Monday’s record-setting 50-jet All Nippon Airways deal is only the beginning, predicted Mike Bair, senior vice president in charge of the program.
By the end of May, Boeing will have delivered proposals to airlines that are interested in buying a total of 500 Dreamliners, he added after a massive employee celebration inside Boeing’s Everett factory
Nicole Piasecki, one of Boeing’s top marketing people, joked that she is so confident that more big orders are in the offing that she’d be willing to bet her house on it.
Bair was a bit more cautious, but still confident. "I don’t know if we’ll have one this big, but we’ll have more big orders," he said.
Thousands of workers cheered and clapped loudly at Wednesday’s celebration as All Nippon’s U.S. representative, Yukio Igawa, congratulated Boeing on launching the new jet.
"Thank you very much for producing good airplanes," he told them.
Boeing workers will be producing a lot of 7E7s, based on their bosses’ projections.
"Obviously," Bair said, not all of the 500 jets Boeing is pitching to customers next month will become orders. But that level of interest is very encouraging, "especially in today’s marketplace."
There is some urgency for airlines that are interested, Bair said. Boeing’s production will be limited in the first years of the 7E7 program, so airlines that want the plane soon will have to order it quickly.
"You can’t ramp it up instantly," he said. "There’s probably not enough airplanes to go around."
Boeing foresees a $400 billion market for the new jet over its lifetime, with orders evenly split among Europe and the Middle East, North America and Asia.
Many of the next orders are likely to come from Asia, Bair said, "just because the industry is doing better there."
Boeing has a number of proposals before different airlines that are close to making a purchase decision, said Piasecki, Boeing’s vice president of sales and marketing.
One of the strengths of the 7E7 is that it fits the needs of large international carriers and the national airlines of small nations, she said.
Given that, the next order could be another large fleet buy like All Nippon’s, Piasecki said. But "it’s a real mix, depending on who makes a move next," she said. "Fifty airplanes, I don’t know, but anything over 20 is a big order for a big airline."
A glowing Alan Mulally started Wednesday’s celebration by bowing to the All Nippon delegation, then telling the assembled workers that "we’re back, really back and building momentum."
"We have been through so much over the past couple of years," said the chief of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division. "We never gave up. We pulled together like never before."
Larry Dickenson, Boeing vice president for sales, said Monday’s 7E7 order was "not about an airplane, it’s about people."
All Nippon already flies 747s, 767s and 777s, and it has 737s on order. With the Dreamliner, "they believe that you once again will create a great airplane family, perhaps the greatest ever."
The announcement of Monday’s order was a relief to Boeing workers, said Terry Williams, part of a team of Boeing engineers from Tulsa who are visiting Everett this week to discuss the wing leading edges they’ll be working on.
His colleague, Tom Killgore, agreed. "It’s not a Dreamliner anymore," he said. "It’s a Real-liner."
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
JUSTIN BEST / The Herald
JUSTIN BEST / The Herald
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