Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 21. May 9, 2025
- Does an A220-500 need a new wing and engines? Part 2. May 8, 2025
- Embraer downplays tariff impact on 2025 results May 6, 2025
- JetZero readies effort for private equity fund raising May 5, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 20. May 2, 2025
Latest 787 problem increases level of concern
The emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 due to a possible battery fault and report of smell of smoke increases the level of concern surrounding the program.
But we continue to advise caution in drawing conclusions.
ANA, followed by Japan Air Lines, grounded their combined 24 787s for inspection and evaluation. Given that the reports indicate a battery was involved, and following the airport fire in Boston 10 days ago on a JAL 787 involving batteries, the action is prudent.
But the news reports we’ve seen are too ambiguous as to the details of the latest incident.
We are confident that all operators are conducting inspections and Boeing’s customer service team has all hands on deck to support their customers and to try and figure out the facts.
But if there are many more (or perhaps any more) such incidents, we would not be surprised if more than spot, voluntary groundings occur.
Odds and Ends: Split winglets for 737NG Retro; A380 wing fix
Split winglets for 737 Retro: Boeing bypassed Aviation Partners Boeing for its split winglet on the 737 MAX, but APB just launched its own order with United Airlines to retrofit the 737NG.
A380 Wing Fix: While Boeing is getting beat up for every glitch in the 787 A380, let’s remember the Airbus A380 went through its own set of glitches. One of them, cracks in wing rib braces, while not a safety issue was nonetheless high profile. The fix is about to be certified by EASA.
American to firm up 787 order, add two 777s and firm up MAX
American Airlines will firm up 42 orders for the Boeing 787, its 737 MAX order and add two 777 orders upon bankruptcy court approval, according to an SEC filing today.
American’s plans to acquire 75 787s had always been contingent on a new pilot contract–which has come through the bankruptcy process. The MAX orders, placed in July 2011, also were never firmed up due to the bankruptcy filing the next month.
Two new 777 orders were unconnected to the 787 and MAX orders.
From the SEC filing:
A380 has, A350 will have lithium-ion batteries
Focus on the Boeing 787’s mishap last Monday comes, naturally, on the fire involving the lithium-ion battery. The battery, or Li-ion for short, is considered hazardous in many applications and in air cargo shipping.
Two Boeing 747-400 cargo planes were carrying a large shipment of Li-ions. One for sure–UPS in Doha–crashed after these batteries caught fire. Another, a Korean Air Cargo flight, was carrying a large shipment. The airplane crashed into the ocean and if the cause was traced to these, we haven’t seen it–but the suspicious arose early.
While the 787’s use of Li-ion has attracted headlines, the use in airplane applications is more common than has been recognized.
The Airbus A380 uses lithium batteries to power its emergency lighting system. The US FAA set special conditions when certifying the aircraft. Airbus says “the batteries are small, limited, and are not in a frequently-active charging/discharging function.”
The Airbus A350 will have Lit-ion batteries. Airbus touts this plan on its A350XWB website:
Airbus also has looked at new ways to generate electricity aboard the aircraft itself. The A350 XWB features a new lithium-ion battery that marks a significant improvement on the Cd-Ni unit used in other models.
The battery contains less hazardous material, which makes it safer to handle. Adding to the benefits, it has a higher power and energy density, and low maintenance requirements, all while lasting up to three times longer than the Cd-Ni.
Aviation International News looked at issues surrounding Lit-Ion batteries last October. Acting upon the recommendation of Cessna, the FAA ordered removal of Lit-ion batteries from the CJ4 corporate jet. A couple of other corporate jets have these batteries.
AIN had this story about stricter rules transporting Li-ion batteries, in which the hazards are discussed.
One of our regular readers and commenters notes that “the A350 architecture… has four 28v Li-ion batteries, meaning there are 28 Li-ion cells on-board…, compared with only 14 on the 787…. Clearly a huge cause for concern… unless Airbus designs the A350 to properly manage this known failure mode, which I am sure they have done.”
SPEEA, Boeing talks go downhill
Talks didn’t exactly break off between Boeing and its engineers’ union, but by all appearances, it seems pretty close to doing so.
The two sides are to meet next week, but SPEEA put out this press release today:
The Boeing Company today presented a partially modified offer to our Prof and Tech Negotiation teams, but was unwilling to provide our team with a complete document. The pieces provided indicate smaller wage and Ed Wells training program cuts than previously proposed. Verbally, the company indicated that they still intend medical cost increases, elimination of the pension for future hires and reduction of growth in retirement benefits for the existing 23,000 engineers and technical workers.
In a departure from long standing practice, Boeing refused to provide the offer electronically today, but indicated they will do so next week. Working through federal mediators, the company said it needed four days to assemble all the pieces of its offer into a complete document.
While refusing to provide the complete offer to SPEEA, Boeing rejected our request that the parties work privately through the mediators rather than negotiating publicly. The company indicated that they intend to try and bypass the negotiating team by “selling” the offer directly to members. Boeing has already launched an aggressive public relations campaign claiming that Boeing corporate’s proposed cuts are actually “improvements.” Members are encouraged to watch the special 18-minute “Trust Me” video posted on the SPEEA website at www.speea.org.
“It was profoundly disappointing that Boeing corporate yet again gave us mere pieces of an offer and refused to provide it electronically” said Ryan Rule, Professional Team member. “As members may recall, we found numerous take-a ways in the last company offer which they hadn’t bothered to flag as changes. This incoherence in corporate contract configuration control is baffling.”
“It’s difficult to understand how Boeing corporate can legitimately claim that they need four days to print out their offer or put that same offer on a flash drive for our negotiating teams,” said Sandy Hastings, Technical Team member. “What are they trying to hide?”
While the major cuts and take a-ways are readily apparent, based on the number of items Boeing hid without mentioning in its first offers, our teams and SPEEA staff know they need to be able to review the company offer line-by-line in order to provide a comprehensive assessment to the membership. The company’s inexplicable delay in providing their full offer prevents a comprehensive analysis.
Support for the SPEEA negotiations continues to grow.
Addressing the SPEEA Council Thursday, IFPTE President Greg Junemann said to remember that Boeing tried to push SPEEA members to accept cuts and take-a ways in 2000.
“Your negotiating teams’ focus is negotiating a contract that respects your contributions without going out on strike,” Junemann said. “But, the folks in Chicago need to hear this loud and clear: If they provoke a strike by SPEEA again, all of IFPTE, and a whole lot of the labor movement, is ready to show them again that engineers and technical workers deserve respect and their fair share of this company’s remarkable success.”
Negotiations are scheduled to resume at 1 p.m., Wednesday, January 16.
Prof and Tech Negotiation Team members encourage members to talk to co-workers, send comments to management and maintain workplace visibility with desk tents and activities. New video messages and a contract offer section are on the website.
Boeing issued this press release (caught up, for some reason, in our spam filter at first):
Today, Boeing presented a revised contract offer to SPEEA featuring increased salary pools for both engineers and technical employees.
Profs would see salary pools of 5 percent during the first two years of the contract and 4 percent in the last two years. Techs would see salary pools of 4 percent annually for the duration of the contract, with an additional lump sum payment equaling 1 percent of their salary in years one and two.
Under this revised offer, profs would average $85,600 in additional pay and performance-based incentive payments (EIP) over the life of the agreement. Techs would average $61,200 in additional pay and incentive payments.
Our proposals on health care (Washington, Oregon, California and Utah) and retirement remain unchanged from our pre-Thanksgiving offer.
Throughout these negotiations, our goal has remained the same — a market-leading contract that rewards employees while keeping the company and workforce competitive for future work. We’ve worked to resolve our differences with the SPEEA negotiations team, withdrawing many proposals that were important to the company. Since our initial offer back in September, we’ve shown considerable movement by increasing our salary proposal twice and revising our medical proposal to lower paycheck contributions.
We encourage you to visit the negotiations website where you’ll find new fact sheets with all the details of the new offer, as well as an updated Pay & Benefits Estimator that shows what the offer means to you.
Boeing and SPEEA’s negotiations teams have agreed to continue discussions next Wednesday.
Boeing also held a teleconference. We missed the live but will dial into the replay when we can. We’ll also link any news stories we see for the Boeing side of the story.
SPEEA had expected to go for a strike vote next week, but without a formal offer, one can’t be held. Thus, any potential strike–which had a target date of Feb. 1–gets pushed to the right.
FAA launches 787 system review
The Federal Aviation Administration today launched a review of the Boeing 787’s electrical system.
We start our coverage with a running synopsis of the press conference at 9:30am ET. Presenting are
Michael Huerta, director of the FAA (MH);
Ray LaHood, US Transportation Secretary (RLH); and
Ray Conner, President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (RC).
RLH:
- #1 priority is protecting the safety of the traveling public.
- We go the extra mile when it comes to safety.
- Today we are conducting a comprehensive review of the design and production of the 787, covering critical systems of the aircraft, including design, production and assembly.
- Will look for the root causes of the recent issues be sure it doesn’t happen again.
- FAA spent 200,000 hrs in advance of certifying aircraft.
Federal 787 review adds new dimension to Boeing-SPEEA talks
The formal Federal Aviation Administration review adds a new dimension to the stalled contract talks between Boeing and its engineers’ union, SPEEA.
Talks Thursday didn’t go well, with SPEEA issuing a short press release laste yesterday afternoon:
SPEEA negotiations with The Boeing Company continued Thursday with little progress on key issues.
Our teams reminded Boeing that with record profits, a completely funded pension, 4,200 airplanes on backorder and $20 billion of cash on hand, it doesn’t make sense to cut wage growth, cut pension growth, eliminate the pension for future hires and raise medical costs for everyone.
Signifying the importance of our efforts to secure a respectful contract with Boeing, IFPTE President Greg Junemann, visited the teams at the hotel and then attended today’s SPEEA Council meeting to reiterate the support of our international union.
Negotiations are scheduled to resume at 9 a.m., Friday.
Boeing’s press release was even more terse:
For the second day in a row, negotiations teams from Boeing and SPEEA held contract talks with the assistance of federal mediators.
The mediators adjourned the meeting late this afternoon. Talks will continue Friday morning.
Boeing will have to rely on its engineers to sort through the review of the electrical system, which has now had four or five glitches, including the well-publicized fire in Boston on a Japan Air Lines 787.
With contract talks going nowhere fast, the prospects of a total breakdown in talks appears more and more likely, perhaps as soon as today. If this happens, look for a strike voted early next week. A walk-out could occur in early February.
If a strike happens, work by SPEEA engines on any 787 system review will stop or at the very least slow to a crawl. Boeing will have to rely on out-sourced engineers, if this is feasible. Engineers at the subcontractors responsible for the systems obviously would continue work, but at best the system review will be complicated by a SPEEA strike.
Clearly, the latest 787 problems add headaches to the contract talks that aren’t needed.
FAA, Boeing 787 review press conference 9:30am ET
MORE to come….
787 electrical system review to be ordered: Seattle Times
Late Thursday night, The Seattle Times reported that the FAA will on Friday order a full electrical system review of the Boeing 787. The story is here.
Jon Ostrower has this short report.
Here is a long report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
More bad headlines
The New York Times has this story about more nettlesome problems with the 787. Although the issues related in this story–cracks in the windshield and an engine oil leak–are minor, the headlines add to the growing bad publicity surrounding the 787. These issues also cause service interruptions for the airplane, inconveniencing passengers and the operators.