Leeham News and Analysis

Key leaders hit back at Boeing “exodus” assertions; CSeries competition for the Big Two; A380 uses; Boeing hikes prices

Boeing’s WA ‘exodus’: Three key leaders in Washington State responded to the drumbeat from State. Sen. Mike Hewitt (R-Walla Walla) that Boeing is in an “exodus” from Washington. Read the article here.

We agree that the use of the term “exodus” is overblow, as we wrote in previous articles here, here and here. We also believe that the greatest threat to Washington’s future in aerospace is when Boeing designs clean-sheet replacements for the 777 and 737, as which point we think there is a real chance these new designs will be built at Boeing’s growing Charleston (SC) complex.

But this bickering between Hewitt, on behalf of the the State’s Republican party, and the Democrats gets Washington nowhere.

At least the Democratic gubernatorial administration has come up with a plan for Washington’s aerospace, although we’ve noted we think it falls short of being bold and innovative. Hewitt and the Republicans haven’t come up with anything except criticism.

The State is undertaking two more studies (on top of at least four we can remember) to come up with ideas about what needs to be done. There are several industry organizations and experts that could be tapped to provide ideas, which the state is not using: the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance, the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition and INWAC in Eastern Washington, just to name three. The state-appointed Washington Aerospace Partnership doesn’t have a single industry representative on it, which is astounding, but it could come up with suggestions for economic development since the membership is overly weighted with these organizations.

Let’s stop the bickering, roll up the sleeves and get to work coming up with a forward-thinking, bi-partisan aerospace plan for Washington.

CSeries Competition: The Puget Sound Business Journal has this article looking at the competition the Bombardier CSeries will give the incumbents.

Meanwhile, Bombardier has undertaken low-speed taxi tests for the CSeries. This is, of course, a prelude to first flight.

A380 deployments: This article goes down the list of Airbus A380 operators and how the aircraft are deployed and configured.

Boeing raises prices: Boeing hiked the list prices slightly of its commercial airplanes. Here is a report comparing Boeing’s new prices with Airbus.