The sky is falling, the sky is falling–and other such nonsense

Within minutes of the Houston City Council approving an international terminal plan for Houston Hobby Airport (HOU) requested by Southwest Airlines, United Airlines announced laying off 1,300 employees at cross-town Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and cancellation of… Read More

A320 build rate, Alabama presents proposal to Airbus

Airbus won’t increase the production rate on the A320 family until introduction of the NEO and it’s now become public that Alabama has presented a proposal to Airbus for an assembly plant there. Airbus disclosed the plan to… Read More

The moving numbers, redux, in the A320-737 game

For two years, Boeing claimed the 737NG was 8% more economical (and here) than the Airbus A320. Boeing told media, analysts, everybody who would listen. Boeing illustrated the point before and after the MAX. Here is a recent… Read More

Odds and Ends: More from the Airbus Innovation Days

We have some follow-up to our trip last week to the Airbus Innovation Days: A350 Program: Aviation Week has this article about the A350 program, noting that the A350-800 seems to be suffering from from benign neglect. A350… Read More

Airbus Innovation Days: synopsis of a lot of stuff

We’ve been at the Airbus Innovation Days in Toulouse, with about 200 others from around the globe. Here are some highlights: A380 wing rib issues: As reported previously in various media, Tom Williams, EVP-programs, outlined the issues with… Read More

Odds and Ends: Airbus Innovation Days, CSeries, SC-787-1 first flight

Airbus Innovation Days: Thursday wraps up the annual Airbus press briefings. All stories are embargoed until 5pm Toulouse time Thursday. That’s today. Or tomorrow. Depends on what time zone you’re in and right now we’re still pretty confused… Read More

Comparing Neo, Ceo, NG and MAX

As Airbus and Boeing battle for orders for the current generation A320 and 737 families and for the re-engined models, comparisons between the four sets of aircraft has been difficult to come by. Furthermore, with Boeing continuing to… Read More

Wells Fargo estimates Southwest paid base price $34.7m for MAX

In a new research note issued today, Wells Fargo estimates that Southwest Airlines paid a based price of $34.7m each for the Boeing 737-8 MAX. The investment bank published the following table, followed by the text: Prior to… Read More

More on the changes to the CFM LEAP-1B

As we reported earlier today, Boeing and CFM didn’t stop with the previously announced 68.4 inch fan for the LEAP-1B engine on the 737 MAX. Buckingham Research, citing Boeing at the investors’ day, wrote that Boeing talked about… Read More

70″ Fan for the 737 MAX

We picked up information that Boeing’s announcement at ISTAT in March that it had settled on a 68.4 inch fan for the 737 MAX LEAP-1B wasn’t a done deal. Now Buckingham Research comes out of Tuesday’s Boeing’s investors’… Read More