Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Teamsters, Boeing have a new contract April 29, 2025
- Boeing wants to remarket China’s airplanes. It’s costly and time consuming. April 28, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 19. April 25, 2025
- How good is the C929? Part 2. April 24, 2025
- Boeing First Quarter Results Update: China is 10% of the backlog, with 500 in “Unidentified” April 24, 2025
It’s official: 737NE launched
Here is Flight Global’s story with a couple of artist renderings of the airplane.
Boeing made it official this morning: launch of the 737NE (New Engine) has been approved, bypassing the Authority to Offer.
Boeing said it has commitments for 496 NEs from five airlines. Only American Airlines has been announced, for 100. We expect Southwest Airlines to be another. Delta Air Lines’ order for 100 737-900ERs did not include conversion rights.
Boeing claims the 737NE will be 7% more efficient operating costs than the A320neo, but in its announcement today did not detail how. Boeing also says the 737NE will have 16% lower fuel burn than today’s A320 and 4% lower than the neo.
787’s legacy is already taking shape
We did a piece over at AirInsight noting that the legacy of the Boeing 787 is already taking shape–contributing to the development of the 737, 747-8 and likely the 777. Hop over and take a read.
737RE up at Boeing Board today
Update, 930am: The Daily Express of L0ndon (of all places) reported yesterday BCA got the approval Friday for the 737RE and that the announcement is to come today. Thanks to Heidi Wood of Morgan Stanley for this one.
Original Post:
Approval for Authority to Offer the 737 re-engine is expected to come from the Boeing Board of Directors today, according to sources.
Last Friday we published our story reporting this in Commercial Aviation Online in London and, per our arrangement with CAO, the following day on this site.
Bloomberg News published this story later on Friday also confirming ATO was expected.
Official launch of the airplane isn’t expected until fall, likely after the October Board meeting, predicts Credit Suisse.
Full design definition of the 737RE isn’t expected until next month, we are told. While it is widely expected that the CFM LEAP engine will have a 66-inch fan in order to avoid any changes to the landing gear that would complicate the work statement, as of today this isn’t definitively settled. A 68 inch fan is still a possibility, though it’s considered more remote.
Delta 737-900 order bypasses re-engine
Here is a story we did for Commercial Aviation Online:
| Date: | 26/08/2011 13:37 |
| Source: | Commercial Aviation Online |
| Location: | Seattle |
| By: | Scott Hamilton |
Delta Air Lines’ order for 100 Boeing 737-900ERs is a major boost to this model, but does nothing to add to the 737 re-engine programme.
The airline’s original request for proposals, issued early this year, came well before Boeing decided to go forward with the 737 re-engine and accordingly, the airplane was not included in any proposal from Boeing to Delta or in any analysis after American Airlines placed the launch order in July.
While there had been some expectation among Wall Street analysts that Delta would at the least have conversion rights in the contract to allow some deliveries in the 2017-2018 period of the 737 re-engine, CAO has confirmed with two sources that there is no provision. Delta would be taking too few airplanes in this period to be allocated valuable launch customer/launch operator delivery slots, according to one person familiar with the situation. Although American provisionally ordered 100 737REs, it does not want to be the launch operator and has slated first deliveries in 2018.
Boeing completes 737 wing production expansion on the way to 42/mo
Boeing completed expansion of a facility at its Renton (WA) 737 plant where it makes wings, where productions rates will climb from 31.5/mo to 35/mo this year and 42/mo in the near future. The company is studying taking rates to as high as 60/mo, as well as where it will assemble the 737RE.
In an internal daily news distribution, Boeing wrote:
The new line is located in Final Assembly just north of the old location, where employees install hydraulics and electrical systems into wings that are built in a different building. Mechanics have about three months to become accustomed to the new line before rates go up.
“It’s the best possible scenario for rate break,” said Ron Karnes, general manager of Seal, Test and Paint and Systems Installation. “Early implementation, a new area and all that time to practice — it’s a very good plan.”
Key to the line’s success are the inputs made by mechanics during six Accelerated Improvement Workshops held over the last year. Workshop participants included people from all parts of the wings value stream and across the shifts.
Earthquake hits Wash DC area; talking about natural disaster risk
A 5.8 earthquake hit the Washington (DC) area, centered about 50 miles southwest but felt as far south as North Carolina and as far north as Boston. No serious damage appears to have been done.
Normally we wouldn’t remark on this, but as it happens, just yesterday we were talking with a Seattle-area person with direct interest in where Boeing builds assembly sites. We naturally talked about Boeing’s 787 site in Charleston (SC) and the bombshell dropped by CEO Jim McNerney that Renton (WA) can’t assume it will be where the 737RE will be built (we can’t yet bring ourselves to call this thing the NE737). Among the considerations is natural disaster risk.
787 certification expected this week
Bloomberg News writes that 787 certification may come August 26. In a superb article giving a current assessment of the program, Bloomberg cites Bernstein Research as estimating the first 1,000 airplanes will cost an average of $116m each. The program accounting block–the point at which the 787 will break even–is expected to be at least 1,000 airplanes, according to most forecasts by Wall Street analysts. Boeing’s accounting block historically has been around 400. Boeing should give the accounting block on this program with the third quarter earnings call in October, assuming first delivery in September.