Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
It’s official: Canada’s Porter selects CSeries for difficult Toronto City Airport
Bombardier Aerospace @Bombardier_Aero 41s
Warm welcome to #CSeries Canadian launch customer @porterairlines that signed a cond. agreement for up to 30 CS100 http://ow.ly/i/1Rx4e
The Toronto Star was quick to post this story.
Here is the Porter press release.
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Canada’s Porter Airlines was the unidentified “Americas” customer announced some months ago to have signed a Letter of Intent for 12+18 CSeries.
The companies revealed today that the customer is Porter Airlines, which chose the CS100 for operations at the highly restricted and difficult Toronto City Airport.
The airport is on a small island near downtown Toronto and currently is restricted to turbo-prop service. Porter operates Bombardier’s Q400.
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The runways are short; the longest, 8/26, is a mere 3,988 ft. Porter is asking authorities to extend the runway.
There are also noise restrictions, but Bombardier, Porter and Pratt & Whitney say the CSeries Geared Turbo Fan engine, combined with the airframe, won’t be a noise nuisance.
This is another win for the CSeries at noise-sensitive and difficult airports. Swedish airline Malmo ordered the CSeries for one of its difficult airports. An unidentified customer, believed to be but never confirmed as PrivatAir, was widely reported to have ordered the airplane for service to London City Airport, another short-field, noise-sensitive airport that also requires a steep glide slope due to surrounding buildings.
Here’s a story from The Province posted this morning in advance of Porter’s announcement.
Odds and Ends: Cybersecurity and aviation; lithium-ion batteries; WA worries about SC; Porter Airlines
Cybersecurity threat to aviation: Addison Schonland at AirInsight has been working on a project related to cybersecurity and the threat to aviation. He’s posted this article that raises serious issues.
Lithium-Ion Batteries: On the eve of the NTSB two-day forum on lithium-ion batteries, Reuters has a think-piece about these batteries in general: uses in cars and other products, for example. It’s been a 10-year research project by battery designers. Quite an interesting article.
WA worries about SC: The Seattle Times writes that Washington State officials are worried about the latest expansion by Boeing in South Carolina.
In advance of Porter CSeries order: A lot of Tweeting from an aerospace writer in Canada:
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Source says Porter feels city of toronto and Feds willing to revisit tripartite agreement.
Retweeted by Isaac Alexander -
Unclear at this point where the Porters CSeries will fly from when its delivered in 2016
Retweeted by Isaac Alexander -
Porter Airlines adding Calgary, Vancouver. LA, Miami, and Orlando using CSeries. From where remains the question.
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@scottdeveau Porter is seeking a lift on jet aircraft bans at Billy Bishop and aims to add 180 m on either end of the runway for CSeries
Scott Deveau Typo or Freudian slip? Brendan Kearney @Kearney_Brendan 16m
Now @NikkiHaley‘s comments on #Boring SC growth plan… (1/?)
Brendan Kearney @Kearney_Brendan 13m
@LeehamNews @nikkihaley ha, typo — and one that I fear making. Usually I catch myself when my thumb strays right on the keyboard.
Odds and Ends: Tit for Tat; Lockheed in crosshairs of—Embraer; 787 return to service
Tit for Tat: Airbus announces a big order from LionAir. The next day Boeing announces a big order from RyanAir. Airbus has a big press day for its groundbreaking at Mobile (AL). The next day Boeing announces a $1bn expansion at Charleston.
Lockheed in crosshairs: Embraer is going after Lockheed Martin. Aggressively.
787 Rescheduled: United Airlines put the 787 in its schedule from May 31. The FAA hasn’t cleared the airplane for flight yet, but Boeing has been telling customers to expect the plane’s return to service in May through June.
Porter said to be CSeries customer for use at Toronto City Airport
Jon Ostrower was rather prolific tonight with the Tweets:
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@scottdeveau Not disagreeing with the content of the Tripartite, just saying there’s a political fight coming for the future of YTZ. -
Bombardier advertises the CS100 & Q400 with a 70 dBA noise contour. This will be the foundation of Porter’s argument for YTZ jet service.
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@scottdeveau Porter is counting on a Q400-like noise footprint for the CS100. You can count on a political fight. -
From Dec: Air Carrier in the Americas Signs Letter of Intent for up to 30 Bombardier CSeries Airliners http://bit.ly/Y99J3R // Porter.
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The order from Porter – expected to be confirmed Wednesday – will make the carrier the first Canadian customer for Bombardier’s CSeries.
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A 34in pitch config. on a CS100 (same as Porter’s Q400) is 100-105 seats and it’s only 1,100nm to Miami from Toronto.
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Edge of envelope CS100 operation is 4,950ft TOFL@MTOW 110 pax to 2,950nm. Porter won’t need that much range or that many seats.
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@crankyflier Porter is counting on serious performance and noise targets on the CS100 to operate in and out of the island. -
It’s understood that the CSeries jets will remain based at the island Toronto City airport, whose longest runway is just shy of 4,000ft.
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The deal for 12 CS100s +18 options is set to be announced by Porter as early as Wednesday morning, say two people familiar with the deal.
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Breaking: Toronto-based Porter Airlines is set to buy up to 30 Bombardier CSeries. Dec. order attributed earlier to an “Americas” customer.
And the Financial Post’s follow-ups:
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Porter Airlines to announce Bombardier CSeries order: report http://natpo.st/XA5wvd
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@jonostrower No doubt about that. I believe the Tripartite Agreement explicitly prohibits jet engines though.Doesn’t matter the sound levels
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Jon Ostrower Washington State Senate budget kills Office of Aerospace; attention turns to House
The Washington State Senate budget adopted last Friday killed funding for the Office of Aerospace, which was created less than a year ago.
The move was driven by the need to find more than $1bn to fund education and the State’s long-running budget shortfalls, brought on by the 2008 global fiscal crisis.
It’s understandable that the Senate, which is controlled by fiscally conservative Republicans and what we call here “Roadkill Democrats” (they’d be called Blue Dog Democrats in Congress), want to make drastic budget changes. The State, which has been controlled by Democrats in the Governor’s Mansion and in both houses of the Legislature, went on a spending binge following the election of Christine Gregoire and Democratic Super Majorities in 2004. The Ds increased spending by 33% on projected 16% increases in revenues. It was wholly irresponsible then and was perpetuated until the fiscal crisis began.
When the current Legislature was being formed, two Roadkill Democrats left their caucus and joined the Republicans in the Senate to form the first GOP control of the Senate since…well, we can’t recall specifically but it may have been around 1996, when we first moved here.
We won’t get into the social cuts of the Republican budget, because that’s not the area we cover in this blog. The move cutting the Office of Aerospace is a big mistake.
Single-Aisle backlog market share between the Big Two
The rivalry between Airbus and Boeing intensified in recent weeks with Airbus landing another major order from a previously exclusive Boeing customer, LionAir. Boeing announced another major order just a day later, Ryanair, retaining exclusivity with this customer.
The market share battle between Airbus and Boeing was fierce and prolonged. The introduction of the A320neo family placed more pressure on Boeing, particularly when it became clear Airbus was going to land American Airlines as a major customer for Current Engine Option and the New Engine Option. Boeing, which had been dismissing the neo as a viable option and dithering about whether to proceed with a new design to replace the 737 NG, found its hand forced. Having no other choice, Boeing launched the MAX, a re-engined version of the 737 NG.
With all the recent orders, we’ve done the math and determined market share for the current generation and re-engined types and sub-types. This data is through March 31 and only includes orders that have been listed as firm contracts, not those that have been announced but not yet firmed up.
Sources are Airbus, Boeing and Ascend Worldwide.
787 battery certification flight plan filed for this morning
Update, 1:30pm PT: The flight test is complete. Boeing issued this statement:
Boeing (NYSE:BA) completed a 787 certification demonstration flight today on line number 86, a Boeing-owned production airplane built for LOT Polish Airlines. Today’s flight marks the final certification test for the new battery system, completing the testing required by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Today’s flight departed from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. at 10:39 a.m. Pacific with a crew of 11 onboard, including two representatives from the FAA. The airplane flew for 1 hours and 49 minutes, landing back at Paine Field at 12:28 p.m. Pacific.
The crew reported that the certification demonstration plan was straightforward and the flight was uneventful. The purpose of the flight was to demonstrate that the new battery system performs as intended during normal and non-normal flight conditions.
Boeing will now gather and analyze the data and submit the required materials to the FAA. We expect to deliver all of the materials to the FAA in the coming days. Once we deliver the materials we stand ready to reply to additional requests and continue in dialog with the FAA to ensure we have met all of their expectations.
Original Post:
Boeing scheduled is critical certification flight test for the 787 today.
Boeing’s statement:
Boeing has filed a flight plan to conduct the 787 battery certification demonstration flight today on Line number 86, a Boeing-owned production airplane built for LOT Polish Airlines.
Today’s demonstration flight is the final certification test for the new battery system. The purpose of the test is to demonstrate that the new system performs as intended during normal and non-normal flight conditions.
The flight plan (which is always subject to change) can be viewed via FlightAware, which can also be used to track the airplane’s route, location and progress throughout the flight, at this link: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BOE272
The flight will take off and land at Paine Field in Everett, Wash. The flight is currently scheduled to depart at approx. 11:00 am Pacific time, but is subject to change. The flight is expected to be approximately 2 hours in length.
We plan to provide updates via Twitter (@BoeingAirplanes). A statement will be distributed to the media via e-mail after the flight is completed.
Separately, Boeing had this to say about advance preparations to return the airplane to service:
We have formed a series of AOG teams to help our customers implement the improvements once certified. One of the teams has already deployed but will not perform battery work until the solutions are certified. Details about the AOG teams are considered proprietary.
Our Aircraft-on-Ground Services team (AOG team) is prepared and equipped to support the implementation of approved modifications to the in-service fleet of 787s. The content of their work packages is driven by our customers’ requests. No work is being done on the battery systems at this time as we are still working through the certification process. AOG teams provide the unique capability for an on-site, comprehensive and integrated modification to airplanes. As always, the safety of those who fly aboard Boeing airplanes is our highest priority.
Reuters quotes Ray LaHood, US Secretary of Transportation (his department oversees the FAA), as saying Boeing has a good solution to the battery issues.
US ExIm financing under attack again; killing it would aid Airbus
US Export-Import financing is under attack again by Delta Air Lines and Republicans.
We understand why Delta is opposed. It believes that ExIm financing of Boeing aircraft to competitors puts it at an economic disadvantage.
But fees charged by ExIm made financing more costly and “market rate,” a move intended to remove the financing advantages. Some airlines, in fact, chose alternative financing as a result.
Delta claims ExIm hasn’t taken into account the impact on losing American jobs. We find this a stretch, since Boeing out-sources thousands of jobs with its industrial partnerships (particularly on the 787) and supply chain contracts. At one time, we seem to recall Delta out-sourced jobs to non-US locations.
Be that as it may, at least Delta has its self-interest at stake and one can’t truly fault the airline for this. But the Republicans are another matter. Although ExIm finances a variety of US industries, Boeing is the prime beneficiary and some Republicans claim this is nothing more than corporate welfare.
ExIm, which has been around since the Great Depression, provides financing that is similar to European export credit support offer to Airbus customers. If Republicans succeeded in killing ExIm (or if Delta does), then Airbus will have a clear advantage.
This falls into the category of “what are they thinking??”
Separately: