Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Building Boeing’s New Small Airplane
An aside before getting into the heart of this post: the following was sent by a Wall Street analyst upon hearing the news that Boeing will lose $300m on the first 18 KC-46A tankers.
KC-46A over-runs. In the movie Casablanca, the Police captain proclaims; “This café is closed; I’m shocked, shocked to find out there is gambling here.” A waiter then hands him his Roulette winnings. We are equally shocked to read reports that BA likely underbid the KC-46 contract. BA’s poor performance on the 767 tanker program and aggressive KC-46A bid drove us to include a nearly $1bn EMD contract over-run in our estimates, which are unchanged. We maintain our Buy rating and $92 target.
Now for the rest of the story, as they say.
While there remains much uncertainty within Boeing and the industry over what Boeing will do about a new airplane–a 737 re-engine or an entirely New Small Airplane (NSA), and if an NSA, what will this look like–states interested in building the NSA also anxiously await Boeing’s decision.
Washington State is the location for building the 737 and having lost the 787 Line 2, it doesn’t want to lose the NSA. The governor has already appointed a task force under the name Project Pegasus to plan the campaign and strategy to be sure the NSA is built here. Other states probably are already planning their strategies, though none has announced anything that we’ve seen.
Boeing’s Shanahan talks about new programs, shifting development in-house
We sat down with Pat Shanahan, who heads up Boeing airplane programs, at the Paris Air Show for a short conversation.
One of the messages top executives have repeatedly said in recent months is that they will not do two new airplane programs, following the challenging and unhappy experiences on the 787 and 747-8 developments. We asked about this and more.
Leahy to Boeing: you’re “whistling past the graveyard”
This is a story we provided KIRO TV in Seattle, for which we provided reports during the air show.
Airbus A320neo success far exceeds expectations
Special to KIRO TV
Airbus ended the primary portion of the Paris Air Show Thursday with 700 new, firm orders for the A320neo (New Engine Option) and a total of 1,029 firm orders and commitments year-to-date. There possibly could be a few more orders before the show officially ends Sunday, but the trade show portion ended Thursday.
The results surprised even Airbus super-salesman John Leahy, who said at the company’s closing press briefing that some deals came together unexpectedly during the show.
Qatar, the launch customer, gives harsh critique of A350 revamp
There’s nothing we can add to this account.
Odds and Ends at the Paris Air Show, Day 3
Odds and Ends at the Paris Air Show, Day 3
- John Leahy, COO-Customers for Airbus, says that after CFM re-jigged the LEAP engine with a larger fan and the seventh LPT stage, has brought the engine to parity with the Pratt & Whitney GTF in fuel burn. The LEAP initially was up to 4% lower in fuel burn, leading to PW’s early lead in sales.
- “We don’t buy deals,” CFM told our associate, Addison Schonland of AirInsight Wednesday during his visit with them at the Paris Air Show. He’s going to have a special post about the War of Words between PW and CFM soon on AirInsight. Read more