Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Odds and Ends: 737 MAX development cost; another range boost for A330
737 MAX: We did this story last week on the development cost of the Boeing 737 MAX.
A330: Airbus is going to boost the range of the A330 to make it more closely match that of the Boeing 777 and 787, according to this story.
Fill ‘er up: Here’s a scary story about a goof in aerial refueling of a Boeing 707-based JSTARS.
Norwegian Air splits order with Airbus, Boeing
In a surprise, Norwegian Air Shuttle split a large order between Airbus and Boeing for A320 and 737 families. The Airbus order is only for the NEO and 737 order is a mix of MAX and NGs.
We expected only the 737 order; we had previously reported NAS was one of the “commitments” for the MAX.
This represents the third all-Boeing customer Airbus has won for its NEO.
NEO deliveries will begin in 2016, equipped with the PW GTF. Engine selection for later deliveries remains open. The GTF enters service on NEO in 2015 and the NEO CFM Leap engine enters service a year later.
Airbus, ATR big losers in Kingfisher turmoil
This is an expanded version of a story we did for Flight Global.
Airbus will be hit hard if Kingfisher Airlines of India fails. ATR has already lopped its entire order of turbo-props from its books due to Kingfisher’s financial travails.
Airbus is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS and EADS owns half of ATR.
DVB Aviation Finance is planning to repossess two Airbus A320 family aircraft, if it hasn’t already, and some lessors are also taking back aircraft.
According to the Ascend data base, Kingfisher operates 31 A320 family with V2500 engines and 25 ATR-72-500s. It has 68 A320s and 38 ATR-72-600s on order. Kingfisher also has A330s, A350s and A380s on order and holds options for a variety of aircraft.
Understanding appraisers in aircraft values
There has been an active discussion in the comment section on the “Rate 35” post and the relative merits of appraisals and appraisers with respect to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737NG.
We’ve been involved in the airline business since 1979 and from 1990, when we co-owned Commercial Aviation Report (CAR), have followed the appraisal business. Given the discussion in “comments,” we think a dedicated post is worthwhile.
CAR created the industry’s first commercial appraisal conference in 1990. ISTAT–the International Society of Transport Aircraft Traders–at that time was still largely a small, professional organization, far difference than what it is today.
CAR’s first conference brought together nearly every appraisal company then in existence in the US to compare and discuss appraisals of what was called Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificates (EETCs) and appraisals published by the firms.
Punching through the hysteria about closing Boeing Wichita
Mike Mecham of Aviation Week has a thorough analysis of what’s behind the decision to close Boeing Wichita.
Contrast Mike’s story with this ridiculous analysis. It’s very, very rare that we call out someone else but this one is so far off the wall that we can’t help ourselves. (It should be noted Loren Thompson was paid by Boeing to do a report about the Airbus subsidies and the tanker competition.)
George Talbot of The Mobile Press-Register weighed in with this story.
Odds and Ends: Air India’s cost of 787s
Air India: FlightGlobal has this article that details the cost of Boeing’s 787s to Air India.
British Airways: Two pilots on a flight from London Heathrow nearly passed out
Kansas: Gov. Sam Brownback unveiled incentives today (Jan. 9) for Bombardier to bring jobs to Wichita, which politicians will view as very positive in the wake of Boeing’s decision to close its defense operations there. Considering Brownback’s stance on Boeing and the air force tanker competition, he continues to diversify Kansas from just Boeing. Wichita is the self-proclaimed “Air Capital of the World,” with presence from Bombardier, Hawker Beechcraft and Airbus. Boeing, of course, was the anchor, having been in Kansas 80 years.
More on tankers: Flightglobal has an interesting piece that 10 years ago, Embraer was prepared to join Airbus Military in the development of the A400M.
Fallout from Boeing’s Wichita move continues
Wichita (KS) politicians continue to grouse about the decision by Boeing to close the defense operations there and move jobs to Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Puget Sound (Seattle).
The Seattle Times has this article, quoting the Wichita mayor and other officials. The portion of the article that caught our eye is this:
“We thought we had a marriage,” said Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, who until his 2007 election was a business manager at Spirit AeroSystems, the airplane-manufacturing operation sold off by Boeing two years earlier.
“It’s taken a lot of work for us to control our outrage,” he said. “So don’t ask me… are you outraged, because the answer will be yes, with probably another four-letter word attached to it.”
Kansas politicians feel particularly “angry and disappointed and dismayed,” as one county commissioner put it, because they led the Republican flank of the decadelong congressional push to secure the $35 billion Air Force tanker contract for Boeing.
In return they were told the company and its suppliers would generate 7,500 direct and indirect jobs after Boeing clinched the contract last February.
“We as a community demonstrated our loyalty to the Boeing Company when they asked us to stand behind them and to go fight for them,” Brewer said.
Now he’s singing a different tune. “Don’t think for one second that we are not exploring our opportunities to go out and recruit Airbus… We are making those phone calls.”
Well, that’s going to be a tough sell. During the tanker competition, Kansas politicians, notably then-Sen. Sam Brownback (now governor) and ex-Congressman Todd Tiahrt (a former Boeing employee as well) couldn’t say enough bad things about Airbus is their campaign for Boeing’s tanker. Tiahrt was particularly vitriolic, though Brownback was no shrinking violet, either.
Damaged Qantas A380 to return to service
The Qantas Airbus A380 damaged last year in an uncontained engined failure will return to service by the end of the year, reports Aviation Week. This is in keeping with QF never having an airframe loss.
What caught our eye in the article is the repair bill: US$140m. This is widely reported to be the pricing for the launch customers when the A380 program was launched (though we have no idea if this is QF’s early-bird pricing). Wow.