A380 suffers new blow, future remains bleak

Subscription Required Air France is returning five of 10 A380s to lessors. Photo via Google images. Dec. 3, 2018, © Leeham News: Air France will return five leased Airbus A380s to lessors next year and in 2020, citing… Read More

VLA era is over; are 777X, A350-1000 too large?

Subscription Required Introduction June 18, 2018, © Leeham News: The era of the Very Large Aircraft appears over. The Boeing 747 passenger airliner, while nominally still offered for sale, is in reality dead. The Airbus A380 limps along… Read More

Pontifications: 2018 starts off with a bang

Jan. 29, 2018, © Leeham Co.: This year isn’t even a month old. If the rest of the year continues like January, commercial aviation is in for an exciting year. The stunning news, of course, was last week’s… Read More

Airbus A350-1000 certified. How good is it?

By Bjorn Fehrm Subscription Required Introduction November 23, 2017, © Leeham Co.: The Airbus A350-1000 received its airworthiness certificate Tuesday, after a smooth flight test campaign. The first serial aircraft is in final assembly, for delivery to Qatar… Read More

Boeing wins first day with big order at Dubai Air Show

Nov. 12, 2017, © Leeham Co.: In a stinging defeat for Airbus, Boeing won an order for 40 787-10s from Emirates Airline. Airbus competed for the deal with the A350-900. Emirates previously canceled an order for 50 A350-900s… Read More

Qantas’ ultra-long haul dream, Part 2

By Bjorn Fehrm Subscription Required Introduction June 28, 2017, © Leeham Co.: It’s now time to continue our article on how Qantas could fly the coveted route Sydney-London direct. Our first article aired the 25th of May. A… Read More

Qantas’ ultra-long haul dream

By Bjorn Fehrm Subscription Required Introduction May 25, 2017, © Leeham Co.: The headline is taken from a Reuter’s article by Jamie Freed from April . We helped Freed to check if the Airbus A350-900ULR and Boeing 777-8… Read More

What’s happened to the VLA sector?

Subscription Required Introduction Aug. 15, 2016, © Leeham Co.: Boeing says it may discontinue the 747 program. Airbus put the A380neo on indefinite hold. Qantas Airways says it doesn’t want its last eight orders. The OEM will reduce… Read More

Sales slowing for larger, Airbus, Boeing twin-aisle jets

Subscription Required Introduction Boeing 777. Photo via Google images. March 28, 2016, © Leeham Co.: A downturn in the order cycle, low fuel prices and backlogs extending to 2020 and beyond combine to reduce the likelihood of much… Read More

Pontifications: Why the 787-8 is no longer favored by Boeing

March 21, 2016, © Leeham Co: My Pontifications for the last two weeks examined how the Airbus and Boeing messaging continues to do battle for the product line ups. Boeing continues to denigrate the Airbus widebody line and… Read More