Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Odds and Ends: Airbus’ 5th quarter; 777X RFP responses
Airbus’ 5th quarter: John Leahy, COO-Customers of Airbus, is so well known for announcing a whole bunch of orders at the company’s annual review press conference (January 13 this time) that Boeing dubbed it the “5th quarter,” and the quip has stuck. Aeroturbopower has a wrap up of how many orders could be announced at the 5th quarter.
Boeing, IAM Meet: Dominic Gates of The Seattle Times reports that Boeing and the IAM met for the first time since the 2-1 vote rejection November 13 of the contract offer in connection with the 777X site selection.
777X responses to RFP: The following news articles try to detail some of the responses by states to Boeing’s 777X site selection RFP:
California and another California
Missouri: The county votes to add $1.8bn in tax breaks to the State’s $1.7bn.
Washington: The State adds Spokane to the list of alternative sites, according to Glenn Farley at KING5 (NBC, Seattle). (No link available.)
New York Times: Losing 777X would start a death spiral for WA State.
On Tuesday, the day the RFPs were due to Boeing, the Washington Congressional delegation released a letter to Boeing CEO Jim McNerney urging that the 777X be assembled in the state. The letter is below the jump.
This follows an Open Letter to Boeing on December 6 from Snohomish County officials (Everett is in this county), published in The Everett Herald.
777X saga, continued: KING5 speaks with rank-and-file in 45 minute interview
777X saga, continued: KING5 (NBC, Seattle) has a 45 minute panel interview with several rank-and-file members of the IAM 751 Machinists Union to talk about the contract and the Boeing 777X site selection.
As of this moment, the interview follows a commercial from Roto-Rooter. With our warped sense of humor, we could come up with all kinds of ribald comments. But we won’t.
Separately:
- Los Angeles Times: Boeing families in Seattle feel spurned.
Audacity and hypocrisy: the Boeing 777X RFP
We received an email from a Reader, who works for Boeing, about the details that emerged last week of Boeing’s Request for Proposals for the site location for the 777X:
I went to your site today to see what you had on the leaked RFI, and I have to say the whining by your crowd of Airbus fanboys is just astounding. Given all of the support given to Airbus for the A380, with Hamburg filling in a protected wildlife sanctuary, giving billions of euros of infrastructure. Changing laws so they could snatch land for Airbus. The hypocrisy just makes me puke. Not one of your posters, nor you, even bother to look at what the over guys got. Nope, just bad, evil Boeing. You could do better, you know.
We replied to this Reader that shortly after the details emerged and we posted links to the newspapers that had them, our power went down for the next 16 hours. When it was restored, we had moved on to other things. The email prompted us to go back, look at the comments and ponder the Reader’s premise. Here is what we came up with:
Airbus, engine OEMs make the case for A340 future
Airbus held a summit December 4 for stakeholders in the A340 to explain how there continues to be life after production ended and despite being a four-engined airplane in a two-engine world.
Key to the future of this out-of-production airliner is increasing the capacity of the A340-600 to an exit-limited 475 seats and for Rolls-Royce to alter its Total Care engine maintenance Power-by-the-Hour terms and conditions to reduce costs.
Airlines, financiers, appraisers and the engine makers were invited by John Leahy, chief operating officer-Customers of Airbus. Engine providers CFM International, Rolls-Royce, Lufthansa Airlines and Hi Fly, a small European airline, made presentations in addition to Airbus.
Airbus produced 246 A340-200/300s and 131 A340-500/600s; 227 and 131 respectively are in operation or parked.
|
Status |
A340-200 |
A340-300 |
A340-500 |
A340-600 |
|
In Service |
19 |
175 |
20 |
90 |
|
Stored |
6 |
27 |
14 |
7 |
Airbus guaranteed the residual value on an unknown number, and has strong motivation to see these airplanes continue in service, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Details from Boeing RFP obtained by St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Charlotte Observer
The St. Louis Post Dispatch just posted a story detailing some of the information from the Request for Proposals from Boeing for the 777X assembly site.
The Charlotte Observer–which obtained the RFP before the Post-Dispatch–has this story.
1pm PST: The Seattle Times now has a copy of the RFP, and here is its story.
Could Boeing face new NLRB complaint over 777X site search?
Could Boeing face a new complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, this time over where the 777X assembly site will be placed? A Cornell University labor professor thinks it possible.
The union-backed publication In These Times wrote on November 25 that Boeing’s shopping the assembly site around following the rejection of a contract offer by IAM 751 November 13 is reminiscent of the 2009 decision to locate the second 787 assembly line in South Carolina in the aftermath of a 57-day751 strike in 2008. The 751 District filed a complaint with the NLRB that that decision was an illegal retaliation and the staff agreed, filing a formal complaint against Boeing and demanding that the assembly line be relocated to Everett (WA). The complaint was dismissed in 2011 when 751 and Boeing agreed to locate the 737 MAX line in Renton (WA) in exchange for a four year extension of the 2008 contract. The secret negotiations took place a year before the 2008 contract was to expire.