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
Boeing leans toward new 737, not Re-Engine: analyst
Boeing is leaning toward a new airplane to replace the 737 rather than proceeding with a re-engining program, an aerospace analyst wrote in a report issued today.
Richard Safran of the boutique Buckingham Research came away from Boeing Capital Corp’s annual investor’s update with an analysis that is a potentially paradigm-shifting conclusion that Boeing will forget about the widely-assumed plan to re-engine the 737 to meet an expected decision by Airbus to re-engine the A320 family–itself a decision largely driven by competition from Bombardier’s CSeries.
Posted on May 5, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
OEM implications from UA-CO merger
This is our quick take because we’re really busy.
- Don’t assume Airbus or Boeing will be the long-term exclusive supplier to the new United. Even though Continental’s Jeff Smisek is the new CEO and he’s from the Continental-exclusive-Boeing-customer company, the new United is to have a balanced mix of officers and United has been a major Airbus customer.
- United’s order for the Airbus A350 remains intact and the Continental crowd inherits this.
- There remains a United order for about 42 Airbus A320s, though UAL has repeatedly said it didn’t expect to take delivery of this order. We’ve never followed the logic, fully expecting UAL to renegotiate the purchase price at some point as part of a new order.
Posted on May 3, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
Bombardier lays foundation for Chinese CSeries order
Bombardier has positioned itself for a major CSeries order in China with the announcement on March 30 of a $3.85bn financing deal with a Chinese financial institution.
CDB will provide the financing for Bombardier’s Q400 turboprop, the CRJ and the new CSeries. Bombardier already contracts with the growing Chinese aerospace industry for major fuselage sections and other components for all three of these airplanes.
Posted on April 2, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
Don’t assume A320, 737 RE programs
Geneva, Switzerland: Here is a report we did for Commercial Aviation Online from the Aircraft Finance and Commercial Aviation conference, followed by some additional commentary and reporting exclusive to this column concerning the prospect of re-engining the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. Our additional commentary includes a discussion of the Bombardier CSeries and the PW GTF engine.
Here is a podcast we did today on the topic.
Posted on March 29, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
WTO Airbus ruling due Tuesday
Update, March 24, 10:15PM Central European Time:
The reaction to the WTO Final Report at the Aircraft Finance Conference is a Big Yawn, even among Americans here in the Geneva, Switz, venue. As one person with close ties to Boeing put it, “Nobody cares.”
At a briefing we attended Tuesday night about the final report, we didn’t hear anything that meaningfully changed our commentary below.
Original Post:
The Final Report on the US complaint about illegal subsidies to Airbus is due tomorrow (March 23), but it will remain confidential until sometime in April before a public version is released for all to see.
Partisans on both sides of the dispute are already lining up in pre-issuing statements and, in the US case, an orchestrated media campaign touting how dastardly Airbus has been.
Yeah, well, whatever.
Posted on March 22, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
A320, 737 Re-engine picks up steam
This story has suddenly picked up speed as both Airbus and Boeing discuss re-engine options for their single aisle airplanes. Scott Hamilton and Jon Ostrower discuss the nuances facing both firms – the engine options, the competitor moves and of course, the CSeries which seems to be driving a lot more of the discussion than many would give it credit for. The stakes are huge for Airbus and Boeing as their biggest money makers are faced with being leapfrogged by new engine technologies that enable a CSeries to take away crucial orders. Republic’s recent order was more influential than many think – and the chance to win at United is quite real for the CSeries. Consequently a lot of time is being spent at Airbus and Boeing talking, designing and considering options. This is a fascinating story unfolding before us.
Here is a 28 minute podcast by Innovation Analysis Group on this subject. It could have been longer….
Posted on March 19, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
CSeries unites Airbus, Boeing
Airbus and Boeing are bitter rivals when it comes to government support for their respective airplane programs but they are united when it comes to the proposed funding for Bombardier’s CSeries, according to this article in The Wall Street Journal.
Posted on January 24, 2010 by Scott Hamilton
The Coming Aerospace Squeeze: Emerging Competitors
AirInsight has released a report entitled “The Coming Aerospace Squeeze – a review of commercial aircraft programs in Brazil, Canada, China, Japan and Russia.” This report summarizes current and planned aircraft programs in each of these countries and the potential impact of those programs on the commercial aerospace market.
Posted on October 5, 2009 by Scott Hamilton
Embraer fires warning over CSeries launch aid
Here we go, the first fall-out of the Airbus-Boeing trade Interim Report. Brazil (Embraer) complained to the European Union about launch aid by Canada to Bombardier for the CSeries and asked the EU to force Canada to cancel the package. Predictably, Canada invited Brazil to…do…something.
Posted on September 9, 2009 by Scott Hamilton
Paris Air Show preview
The Paris Air Show begins on June 15 and we’ll be there.
We’re attending the EADS media day on the 13th and will extend our stay through Tuesday (the show runs through Friday). We don’t expect much in the way of orders. The biggest anticipation will be whether Boeing will fly the 787 before or during (not “at”) the show.
Here are things as we understand them going into the show:
Posted on June 5, 2009 by Scott Hamilton