Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Bjorn’s Corner: New engine development. Part 4. Propulsive efficiency April 19, 2024
- Boeing unlikely to meet FAA’s 90-day deadline for new safety program April 18, 2024
- Focus on quality not slowing innovation, says GKN April 18, 2024
- Boeing defends 787, 777 against whistleblower charges April 17, 2024
- Dissecting Boeing CEO’s statement next new airplane will cost $50bn April 15, 2024
Odds and Ends: Airbus & Boeing White Elephants; BABC conference; CSeries stalking horse
White Elephants: Bloomberg News doesn’t pull any punches in this article.
747 No. 1 needs help: The Seattle Times has this long story about the first 747-100 that needs restoration.
BABC Conference: The British American Business Council has a conference Sept. 27 in Seattle, with focus on the Middle East. (Go figure.) Here is the link. Tim Clark, CEO of Emirates Airlines, is a key speaker.
CSeries Customers: Here’s a complete listing from Bombardier, the most detailed we’ve seen: The CSeries aircraft order book includes firm orders for 138 CSeries airliners from Braathens Aviation (five CS100 and five CS300 aircraft), Deutsche Lufthansa AG (30 CS100 aircraft), Korean Air (10 CS300 aircraft), Lease Corporation International Group (17 CS300 and three CS100 aircraft), PrivatAir (five CS100 aircraft), Republic Airways (40 CS300 aircraft), an unidentified major network carrier (10 CS100 aircraft), an unidentified European customer (10 CS100 aircraft) and a well-established, unidentified airline (three CS100 aircraft). The CSeries aircraft program has also booked options for 124 aircraft and purchase rights for 10 aircraft from these customers. In addition, the CSeries aircraft program has also achieved a conditional order placed by an unidentified customer for five CS100 and 10 CS300 airliners, as well as three letters of intent: for up to 30 CSeries aircraft from Ilyushin Finance Co; for up to 15 CS300 aircraft from Atlasjet; and for up to 20 CS300 aircraft from airBaltic.
AirAsia and CSeries: CAPA (Centre for Asia Pacific Aerospace) writes what we also figured: the buzz from the Farnborough Air Show about AirAsia and the CSeries seems to be more a ploy than a serious effort. Setting that aside, the CAPA piece is a pretty good analysis of the CSeries potential for low cost carriers.
The Sporty Game: AirInsight has an analysis on Boeing’s product strategy.
Frequency vs capacity, the ever going battle for analysts and air travellers, I know what I vote for and it seems the market supports my view 🙂 Bad bad market that wont do as we want them to.
href=”http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/farnborough-airasia-boss-confirms-talks-for-100-cseries-cs300-374312/”This is what Tony Fernandes had to say about the CSeries:
“The advantage is that the CSeries can get into a lot of airports to which we currently do not have access”. … Bombardier have to prove that the operating cost of the aircraft will “make sense” for the airline, “We live and die by cost.”
That suggests he was interested in the CSeries because of its short field performance and he doubts the per seat costs of the CSeries match up with the A320 NEO (The A319 is not considered).
We talked to Fernandes for a cover story for Airline Economics magazine; Tony told us that he wants to keep AirAsia “an Airbus company.”
Maybe an other compagny, like AirAsia Regional, will be perfect for «an Bombardier compagny» ! The CAPA paper tell us very well too!
the A380 both white elephants. There’s a difference though, one of them has 20 customers will be produced 3 a month soon, met its performance targets from aircraft #1, set new standards in comfort and CASM and will most likely be added to the fleets of the big international carriers that haven’t ordered them already. Saying both are problematic makes one side of the public feel better I guess but doesn’t tell the full story..
The only real newsworthy item from Robert Wall, et al.:
To call the A380 and even 747-8I white elephants is a bit strange.
These aircraft may not be selling well now, but inevitably will sell better in the future. I think the A380 has more potential over the 747-8I because it can carry many more passengers.
Airports are becoming too crowded and so airlines will be forced to grow capacity through larger aircraft. Why aren’t more direct flights with bigger aircraft being considered a future possibility? You could have 10 or more A380 flights per day between London & New York eventually as demand increases for example. Why not? The A380 will be around for years to come and be kept relatively up to date with minor improvements as time goes on. We’ll see of course. It’s all about the long game!
Possible merger of EADS and BAE systems. I admit, I am surprised:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19576907
Just heard /saw it in the news here too ( ARD, 20:00 )
Quite surprising, for sure!
Defense.. public financed R&D..
It is indeed surprising, but it makes perfect sense. BAE has a strong foothold in the US, which is exactly what EADS is looking for.
I really like the Air Insight article; it makes the exact same points I’ve been making in comments here. In particular, their analysis of would “would and should have happened” if Boeing had kept on schedule with the 787 tallies almost exactly with what I mentioned a while back. I agree, Boeing does need to stop dithering, they need to realize they’re the ones who have to play catch-up, and they need to get moving on the designs they’ll need to reclaim market dominance.
American tax money to pay for EADS RnD? Yeah that will sell well in America of today..Buy american seems to be growing with every day now. If Oh bummer gets the boot I think the isolation policy will grow. Ending the wars and closing its borders.
American political culture is generally well disposed towards the UK but openly hostile towards the continent, europhile cultural elitism notwithstanding. If BAE Systems’ ceases to be perceived as a British company and becomes part of a continental euro-conglomerate I would expect future contracts in the US to be a much tougher fight for them, especially in this xenophobic
Boeing’s next major investment of five billion will be in a new wing. What will be the best place to put it, on the old 777, a new small airplane, or a new Y3?
My long term believe was Boeing would launch a new wing for the 787, covering up to 350 seats/8000nm and an Y3 replacing 773ER and 747 covering 370-500 seats..
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z160/keesje_pics/787-10.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-Oqf_vOmanM/SuA6-VIp2_I/AAAAAAAAAH0/Sy1be7MiWns/s1600/AirFrance_Ecoliner.JPG
I like the rendering of the Air France Ecoliner. Is that a Boeing 797-200 Ecoliner?
Looks like. detailing is 787ish. Though there are no vortex generators visible ;-?
Looking back I specified the -200 around the lenght of a B777-200 and a -300 around the lenght of a 777-300.. Henry only drew -200s like this one ~68 m.
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3656278
Don’t know why super jumbos are called “eco” when airlines don’t cram them full with economy seats. Before they canceled, we can recall France’s Air Austral ordered the only true “eco” A380 with ~800 seats.
The downside with doubledeckers is that cargo capacity sucks, and Boeing seems to like cargo capacity on its frames. I think the Y3 will be a larger 777, wider for true 10-across seating and 85m for the bigger model. Doing a doubledecker would kill the 77F model replacement.
It is all in the potential ( while fuel is still too cheap 😉