Here’s why Boeing won’t do a “757 MAX”

Feb. 12, 2015, c. 2015 Leeham News and Comment: Boeing appeared to put to bed once and for all any prospect of reviving the 757 to fill a product gap between the 737-9 and the 787-8.

Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing, refuted a published report that said Boeing was studying resurrecting the plane, last delivered in 2005, with new engines and winglets. Tinseth made the remarks Feb. 11 at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference in Lynnwood (WA).

While Boeing studied the prospect at one or more points, we didn’t view this as particularly significant; Boeing looks at virtually all options when studying product development.

Our economic analysis, performed after the published report, is one reason why we didn’t believe Boeing would proceed with a “757 MAX.” The economics simply fall short of the competing Airbus A321LR by double digits.

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PNAA Conference: EMB’s John Slattery: Market share from deliveries key in measuring success

Quotations are paraphrased.

Feb. 11, 2015: You can market share from sales. We don’t make revenues from sales but from deliveries, says John Slattery, chief commercial officer for Embraer. EMB dominates in deliveries, he said at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference today in Lynnwood (WA). Read more

PNAA Conference: Boeing’s Tinseth dismisses Aboulafia forecast of Airbus A320 dominance; firm ” no” on 757RE

Quotations are paraphrased.

Feb. 11, 2015: I don’t see a 60% market share for our competition (Airbus, single-aisle airplanes), says Randy Tinseth, VP Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in his presentation today before the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance in Lynnwood (WA).

Tinseth instead points to the 50/50 deliveries of the A320 v the 737 in 2014.

He was referring to Richard Aboulafia’s prediction that Airbus will have a 60% single-aisle market share through 2024.

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PNAA Conference: Boeing’s supply chain chief: we are in a more-for-less world today

The quotations are paraphrased.

Feb. 11, 2015: The reality is that we are in a more for less world now, says Kent Fisher, vice president and general manager, Supplier Management, for Boeing Commercial Aircraft. The reality is that getting paid of technology advances is over. We have to cut costs as a result, he said at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference today in Lynnwood (WA).

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PNAA Conference: Aboulafia–“A lot of positivity” (except for A380, 787)

Feb. 11, 2015: We’re at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance conference in Lynnwood (WA) north of Seattle. This is the 14th annual conference. Appearing are consultant Richard Aboulafia, Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and a number of key suppliers.

This is the first of several reports, beginning with Aboulafia, of the consulting firm Teal Group. We’ll be reporting in the format of paraphrasing his and other presenters.

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Tomorrow’s Bombardier earnings call: trying to be upbeat in the midst of a tornado

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Introduction
As the market prepares for Bombardier’s 2014 year end earnings call tomorrow, CEO Pierre Beaudoin has his work cut out for him to restore confidence among the airlines and lessors who have ordered the CSeries and who might.

The abrupt departure last month of yet another aerospace sales chief, Ray Jones, is the third top executive to leave within a short time. Gary Scott resigned as CEO of the Aerospace unit for personal reasons. Chet Fuller, Scott’s successor, left after his three year contract wasn’t renewed. Jones followed Fuller out the door after 13 months. Guy Hachey, president of the aerospace unit, left in a corporate reorganization of the unit.

Key people is sales and marketing also departed after Jones took over. Philippe Poutissou, VP-Marketing, was unceremoniously ousted as Jones wanted his own team. Rod Sheridan, Vice President Commercial Aircraft Customer Finance, left and joined Nordic Aviation as vice chairman. There has been turnover in the sales force as well.

Summary

  • Customers bewildered by events.
  • Confidence in CSeries remains, but uncertainty swirls.
  • CSeries EIS seen slipping to 1Q2016.
  • Customers worry about lack of “relationships.”

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Odds and Ends: CSeries; Mitsubishi MRJ; Air France; Saving airlines

CSeries: Bombardier provided a short update from program head Rob Dewar in advance of its 2014 earnings call Thursday. The flutter test has been completed, CS300 is moving toward joining the flight test fleet and the fleet has completed 900 hours of the 2,400 required toward certification.

  • BBD today revealed the identify of the customer for 24 CRJ-900s, announced Dec. 30: it’s American Airlines.
  • Luxair plans to order some Q400s to replace its Embraer E145 jets.

MRJ90: The Mitsubishi MRJ is Japan’s first commercial airliner since the YS-11 turboprop in the last century. It’s a bold project intended to break into a highly competitive market sector. Air&Space magazine of the Smithsonian Institute profiles the MRJ.

Air France: Aviation Week has a dark opinion of the future of Air France. It’s worth a read.

Saving airlines: While Aviation Week has a dim view on the future of Air France, The Wall Street Journal has a piece about how private equity saved airlines. (Subscription may be required).

 

Regional operations with the Turboprop, prop-jet or Jet

By Bjorn Fehrm

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Introduction

08 Feb 2015: Passenger traffic is growing the world over on a regional, domestic and international level. For domestic and international airlines the choice of mainline transport aircraft is clear today: there are only two vendors, Boeing and Airbus, and they produce similar products.

For regional transportation there is more choice. First of all, one can chose typeleehamlogo copyright 2015 small 210_87 pixels of aircraft, turboprop or jet. Within jet, there are several OEMs that are active. The choice in turboprop is more restricted. In practice, the choice stands between the classical turboprop with ATR and a faster type from Bombardier, the Q400 “Prop-Jet” as it is called, as its speed lands between the classical turboprop and regional jet.

The question is, what are the real differences between them in terms of design, passenger comfort and economics and what is the right choice for a market segment? We will take a deeper look into this by analyzing the ATR72 as the classical turboprop, the Bombardier Q400 as the Prop-Jet and CRJ700 as the regional jet.

Summary:

  • The ATR72-600, Bombardier Q400 and CRJ700 are all about the same size, around 70-80 seats single class or 60-70 seats dual class.
  • They offer different comfort levels, and it is not all about speed.
  • In developing the economics in two steps we seek the crossover points between the different types.

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Single-aisle values, lease rates stable; smaller mainline jets struggle

Special to Leeham News and Comment

By Gueric Dechavanne
Collateral Verifications

Feb. 8, 2015: Apart from a few unfortunate events, the industry has been moving along quite nicely so far in 2015. Used single-aisle aircraft values and lease rates have remained somewhat stable for the most part whilst new aircraft continue to be in demand which means a competitive landscape for those looking to invest in the types. On the in-production front, Airbus A319s, A330-200s, and Boeing 737-700s continue to struggle to find homes as many operators look to their larger siblings for lift. Airbus A320s, 321s, 330-300s, A350-900, Boeing 737-800s, 777-300ERs, and 787s continue to be the aircraft of choice, which in turn has stabilized and even strengthened values and lease rates for most. We are starting to see some softening in 777 values, which we believe is due to the competitive nature of some of the Boeing campaigns to fill the order book until the 777X enters service.

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Odds and Ends: Real-time flight tracking; LEAP-1A testing

Real-time flight tracking: At last, the airline industry is adopting rules to require real-time flight tracking. ICAO, the international organization governing rules and regulations, approved one to require real time tracking next year. The action is long overdue.

Singapore Airlines has made the decision to begin installing the system sooner.

Initially data will be transmitted at 15 minute intervals but if a flight anomaly occurs, transmissions will occur at one minute intervals. While the system won’t prevent real-time accidents (or hijackings), locating airplanes sooner could save lives if an accident is survivable or accelerate recovery of flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders to solve an accident sooner and potentially prevent accidents in the future from the results.

LEAP-1A testing: The CFM LEAP-1A, destined for the Airbus A320neo family, is now in flight testing, reports Flight Global.