By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
31 March, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Boeing will present its first quarter 2016 results in about three weeks. One area which will be carefully scrutinized by the aerospace analysts will be the progress of the 787 program towards making money instead of consuming it.
Boeing gives the detailed information about the health of the 787 program in the comments by Boeing’s CFO, Greg Smith during the quarterly conference call. In the last call, he puzzled the analysts (and us) by saying that the 787 program was cash positive in 4Q2015 yet the program increased its deferred production and tooling costs by $191m. This means it still pushed about $5m per aircraft into the balance sheet as production loss.
At the time we assumed that the 787-9 was cash positive whereas the 787-8 was negative. This was most probably correct but not the whole picture. With some further poking around we think we are the elusive loss making cash positive on its tracks.
It has to do with the peculiarities of program accounting.
Summary:
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Introduction
March 28, 2016, © Leeham Co.: A downturn in the order cycle, low fuel prices and backlogs extending to 2020 and beyond combine to reduce the likelihood of much in the way of wide-body orders this year, say commercial aviation officials.
A preference for smaller twin-aisle jets could also hurt sales of larger twin-aisle airplanes, according to observers.
These factors spell challenges for Airbus and Boeing for the A350-1000, the 777-300ER and the 777X.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
March. 21, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: There is quite a lot of talk about what a new aircraft program like Boeing’s Middle of the Market (MOM) would cost the airframe OEM to develop. Typical quotes are “it would cost them at least $10bn.” When saying this, the person implies this is the program’s load on the company’s liquidity for that aircraft program.
This is not correct and we will now go through why. It might be true that the development of the aircraft cost $10bn. But the trouble is, this is not the only cost that will hit the OEM for this aircraft program.
Cost that one normally does not think about when talking about new aircraft programs can double the cash burden on the OEM. Here’s why.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
March. 14, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: In three articles we have been looking at the new Russian single aisle aircraft, Irkut MC-21, from United Aircraft and the new Russian engine that is being developed for the aircraft, the PD-14.
The PD-14, which is offered as an alternative to the base engine for the aircraft, the Pratt & Whtiney PW1400G, was analysed in our Part 3 article. We now mount the engine on the MC-21 and explore the difference in performance compared to the base engine.
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Introduction
March 10, 2016, © Leeham Co.: MOMentum for the Middle of the Market aircraft seems to be slowing from last year, as potential buyers and Boeing struggle to define an aircraft that would be affordable to build, affordable to buy and fulfill different mission requirements for capacity or range.
Meantime, Airbus is content to watch Boeing’s predicament, secure in what it believes is the winning strategy.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
March 7, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Airbus signed an MOU with Philippine Airlines for six A350-900 with options for six more at Singapore Air Show. The deal is significant because the airline’s President & COO, Jaime J. Bautista, said that the aircraft’s range played an important role in the selection process.
The A350-900 was not designed as an especially long range aircraft, not more so than its main alternative, the Boeing 787-9. Yet in two recent selections, for Singapore Airlines and now Philippine Airlines, the range of the A350-900 has won the deal for Airbus. We explain why.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
Feb. 29, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: In two articles we have been looking at the new Russian single-aisle aircraft, Irkut MC-21from United Aircraft. Now it’s time to analyze the new Russian engine, PD-14, which is offered as an alternative to the base engine for the aircraft, the Pratt & Whitney PW1400G.
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By Bjorn Fehrm
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Introduction
Feb. 24, 2016, ©. Leeham Co: Two weeks ago we started our analysis of the new Russian single aisle aircraft, United Aircraft’s Irkut MC-21. We looked at key design features and compared these to the Airbus A320.
We also analyzed the passenger capacity where we found that the model which will start flight testing, the MC-21-300, has a capacity between the A320 and the A321. The closest aircraft in capacity and performance in the MC-21 lineup versus the competition would be the MC-21-200 and A320neo.
We have therefore decided to do our efficiency analysis between these variants.
Summary:
Airbus needs more vertical integration, says official
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Introduction
John Leahy, chief operating officer-customers. Airbus photo.
March 3, 2016, © Leeham Co.: Airbus may well have avoided the supplier-driven delivery delays on its A350s had the company brought some key work in-house and become more vertically integrated, says its chief operating officer-customers.
Airbus has been bedeviled by delays in business class seat and galley deliveries from supplier Zodiac, resulting in delayed deliveries of the A350-900 to several airlines.
John Leahy, in an interview with LNC at the International Society for Aircraft Transport Trading (ISTAT) conference Feb. 29-March 1 in Phoenix (AZ), said Airbus shouldn’t be at the mercy of suppliers of interiors. His wide-ranging interview also touched on several other topics.
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Posted on March 3, 2016 by Scott Hamilton
Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, CFM, CSeries, ISTAT, Leeham News and Comment, Pratt & Whitney, Premium
737-7, 737-700, 787, A319, A320NEO, A330-900, A350, Airbus, Boeing, CFM, GTF, ISTAT, John Leahy, LEAP, Pratt & Whitney, Zodiac