It’s official: Boeing launches 787-10 with 102 orders, commitments

Here’s the Boeing press release.

Boeing expects the 787-10 to perhaps be the best selling model of the family over time. With a range of 7,000nm, it will have the ability to do most airline missions; 8,000nm-8,500nm range airplanes (let alone the proposed 9,400nm range of the 777X) is really more than most carriers need. We expect the orders to double by the end of the year.

In other Paris Air Show news, easyJet chose to stay with Airbus for its fleet renewal ordering a combination of 35 A320ceos and 100 neos. This was hard-fought competition. Boeing thought it won the deal on price, and Bombardier was ready to go with its own contract when Airbus came in at the last minute with a low price of its own, blowing both competitors out of the water.

Bombardier: This story explains in part why Bombardier has been challenged in selling the CSeries. The US Scope Clause inhibits sales to regional airlines; and lessors want to see a broader customer base. This is in addition to Airbus under-pricing Bombardier in key campaigns to block sales.

ATR landed an order for up to 90 ATR-72-600s.

Boeing will market the Embraer KC-390 to the Pentagon. After all the Boeing campaign about the Pentagon buying a foreign airplane for a tanker, this really takes the cake.

Paris Air Show Day 1

UBS has this easy-to-read Table of the orders and commitments announced on Day 1 of the Paris Air Show:

UBS Paris 2013 Day 1

The big news, of course, is the launch of the Embraer E-175/190/195 “E2” (second generation). The press release is here.

Embraer Rendering

Airbus scored an unexpected order for the A380: 20 from specialty lessor Doric Leasing, which has financed a number of A380s. We think this is an odd deal, and it must be one that already has some A380 customers lined up.

Tomorrow is expected to be the day Boeing launches the 787-10, so it should be Boeing’s day. We also believe tomorrow will be the day Airbus does a fly by of the A350 XWB. A little tit-for-tat, perhaps.

Odds and Ends: Airbus will “win” the Air Show; AvWeek’s McNerney interview; 747-8 vs 747-400

Airbus will “win” the air show: We did this preview for CNN International.

Jim McNerney Interview: Aviation Week has this long one.

Dominic Gates of The Seattle Times will be blogging from the Paris Air Show. You can follow him here. He has several reports worth reading.

Meantime, he reports that the Boeing 787-10 may be built in South Carolina, not Boeing’s main plant at Everett.

NYC Aviation has an interesting pilot perspective on flying the Boeing 747-400F and the 747-8F.

Following the Paris Air Show by @jetcitystar

Isaac Alexander (@jetcitystar on Twitter) provided us with the following so you can follow the latest at next week’s Paris Air Show. He has his own blog with an addiutional list of companies.

From Isaac: Here is a list of micro-news sites for the 2013 Paris Air Show. This will be the 50th edition of the event. If you know of a company or press website that is not listed below, please contact me by Twitter at @JetCityStar, or by email at jetcitystar10@gmail.com.  This page will be continually updated during the event. 

 

PRESS

Aero Society

AIN Online

Air Recognition

Air Recognition Video

Air Transport World

Aviation Week

Avionics Intelligence

Bloomberg

Breaking Defense

CNBC

CNN

Defense News

Economic Times

EIN Newsdesk

First Post

Flight Global

Fly Corporate

Janes

Janes

MarketWatch

NY Times

Paris Air Show News

Shephard News

Take-Off Magazine

Wall Street Journal

COMPANIES

AIA

Airbus

ATK

ATR Aircraft

BAE Systems

Beechcraft

Boeing

Bombardier

Cassidian

Crane Aerospace & Electronics

EADS

GE Aviation

Honeywell

KAMAN

Lockheed Martin

Pratt & Whitney

Rockwell Collins

SAAB

Safran

Thales

Odds and Ends: Crowded airplanes; A350 first flight; Air France to firm A350 order

Crowded airplanes: USA Today has an article discussing today’s crowded airplanes. It’s going to get worse. Airbus is offering a configuration for the A380 that has 11 abreast in coach. Boeing says most airlines are now selecting 10 abreast for the 777. Most customers are choosing nine abreast for the 787. Gone are the days when the center seat had good odds of being empty. This is why Bombardier designed its CSeries wit a 19 inch center seat, the widest in the industry.

A350 first flight: Thursday at 10am Toulouse time.

Air France and A350: Several reports indicate Air France will at long last firm up its order for the A350 at the Paris Air Show. It has been held up over maintenance contract issues with Rolls-Royce.

 

Odds and Ends: Boeing jobs move; JetBlue’s trans-con plan; Airbus Innovation Days; BBD confidence

Boeing jobs move: We’re not a fan of Loren Thompson, but his commentary in Forbes yesterday is spot on. Boeing is moving jobs out of Washington State to bolster its Charleston (SC) cluster and simply to move to non-union locations.

Washington State needs to come up with some real planning to address the competitiveness in relation to the South. So far, what’s been unveiled is more of the same–there’s no innovation. This isn’t going to work.

JetBlue’s trans-con plan: The US discount carrier said it was contemplating two-class service across the USA. A filing reveals what it was thinking (with a tip to Mary Kirby on this one). What surprises us more than anything is the low density planned in the Airbus A321: just 156 seats. JetBlue’s single-class A320 has 150 seats. Strikes us that JBLU is leaving a lot of potential revenue behind.

Airbus Innovation Days: AirInsight went to the Airbus Innovation Days this week and has a number of postings here.

Here are some more stories coming out of the Airbus days:

Financial Times

Reuters

Bombardier says CSeries is a “done deal.” Meaning no more delays. This is a pretty bold statement, given the history at Airbus and Boeing. The Reuters story reports the confidence at BBD, but from a pizzazz perspective, it still seems unlikely the CSeries will fly during the show. In the firmest indication yet, it now looks like the first flight will be the last week of June.

11 Abreast on the A380: Not for me.

787-10 Will be marketing “disaster.” So says John Leahy in this article** (all the way at the bottom). That’s not at all what we are hearing from the potential customers we talk to. Lessors and airlines alike look forward to the airplane. Leahy compares the 787-10 with the 767-400, which was a marketing disaster–only two airlines, Delta and Continental–bought the airplane. Both found a workable niche for it, but the 787-10 is no 767-400. With range of 7,000nm, it will have 82% of the mission range of the 8,500nm 787-9, A350 (and A380), it matches the A330-200 HGW, exceeds the 6,000 nm range of the A330-300 HGW and nearly matches the 7,200 nm range of the early 787-8s–with nominally 323 seats, the size of the 777-200ER and the A350-900.

** Readers may have to go to Google News and type in headline “Stretch Version of A380 still far off”

or try this URL directly

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/stretch-version-of-a380-still-far-off-says-airbus-chief-john-leahy/story-e6frg95x-1226658853394

To paint or not to paint, that is the question

To paint or not: We’re in Chicago for an industry event called Chi-Stat (essentially a big party) and one of the topics of discussion is whether Bombardier should take a few days out of its test schedule to paint CSeries Flight Test Vehicle 1 in advance of the first flight.

Yes, one side says, even if it means delaying the flight a few days into July. The world wide photos of first flight is worth painting the airplane. No, the other side says: Bombardier is focused on maintaining schedule. We were a bit surprised at the time of the “reveal” in March that the airplane had not been painted then. There was no roll-out because BBD didn’t want to break the schedule. Officials are very focused on breaking the recent history of Airbus and Boeing delays and to not add to the six month delay already built into the CSeries program.

What do you think?

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Here are a couple of BBD items:

Montreal Gazette

Belfast Telegraph

 

Bombardier firms up CSeries order, reveals undisclosed customer

Bombardier firmed up a large order for the CSeries with Russia’s Ilyushin Finance Corp., which previously signed an MOU for up to 42 of the new aircraft design. BBD also revealed a long-standing, undisclosed customer, Gulf Air, which had signed a firm order for 10+6 CS100s.

The Toronto Globe and Mail has this story.

Reuters has this story.

BBD now has firm orders for 177 and total commitments for 388 CSeries. It wants 300 firm orders by entry-into-service, slated for a year from now. First flight is planned for the end of this month.

Meantime, launch customer Swiss (via its parent Luthansa Group) sees a need for a larger CSeries, the oft-talked about CS500.