Leeham News and Analysis

Odds and Ends: Snookered by Boeing; Superman; Me2Al; Odyssey Airlines

Snookered by Boeing: That’s how one legislator in Washington State put it in the outcry aftermath of Boeing moving engineering jobs out of state despite an $8.7bn set of tax breaks to land the 777X wing production and assembly site here. She went on to say she wouldn’t have voted for the breaks had she known, and she’s so tired of Boeing.

Sound similar to what legislators said after voting for the $3.7bn in tax breaks in 2003 to land the 787 assembly line. Six years later Boeing put 787 Line 2 in Charleston, revealing that the State had failed to add strings to that set of tax breaks to assure all 787 assembly would be done here.

Snookered then and snookered now. What strikes us is that any legislator thought anything different would happen.

Boeing’s job strategy has been very, very clear for years: move engineering, IT and other non-touch labor jobs out of Washington as fast as it can. Move component work out of Washington. And for the 777X assembly work: can you say “robotics”?

IAM 751, the touch-labor union, claimed all along Boeing was snookering membership and the State of Washington and was going to assemble the 777X here anyway, regardless of the contract vote and state incentives (we disagreed, but only McNerney knows for sure).

Washington needs to get used to Boeing moving jobs (hence, our continued refrain of look Beyond Boeing). Aside from Chicago’s long-obvious job transfer plan, robotics and automation will, over time, take an increasingly prominent role in building airplanes. Boeing has been introducing robotics on the 777 Classic line, so expanding this use should be expected.

Superman: This video shows a Boeing 737 being pushed sideways at the gate by strong winds and an icing ramp. The most amazing part of this amazing video is the ramp worker who is trying to stop the airplane. It seems the rampie thinks he can bench press 150,000 lbs.

Me2Al: He’s widely known as U-Turn Al for his propensity to do 180 degrees multiple times on his opinions about airplanes, engines and orders, but now Akbar Al-Baker is becoming Me2Al as well. Long envious of Tim Clark, the president of Emirates Airlines, Al-Baker hooked his wagon to Clark on the 777X last year at the Dubai Air Show, claiming the two carriers negotiated similar specifications at the same time to get a better deal from Boeing.

Now he’s followed Clark’s lead once again, this time jumping on the prospect of the Airbus A380neo.

Odyssey reveals some details: Odyssey Airlines, the business-class start-up carrier that is building its business plan around the Bombardier CSeries, revealed a little bit of its plans in this article. It will have 40 lie-flat seats on the CS100, operate from London City Airport (previously known) and its funding is partially revealed.

Great B-17 Photos: See The Seattle Times montage here.