Boeing remains confident it will fill 777 production gap; cash flow to remain strong

Dec. 3, 2014: Boeing remains “confident” it will be able to bridge the 777 Classic production line at current rates to the introduction of the 777X in 2020, including some “feathering” of the two airplanes. Boeing president and… Read More

Farnborough Air Show, July 17: Orders summary, reflections of the show

Orders continued to trickle in as the Farnborough Air Show winds down (there could be others not listed here). Airbus: Transaero, LOI for 12 A330neos and eight A330ceos; Hong Kong Aviation Capital firms up an order for 40… Read More

Boeing sees 4% increase in aircraft demand in next 20 years

Boeing forecasts a demand for 36,770 new airplanes during the next 20 years, an increase of 4.2%, in its Current Market Outlook. The value of this demand, which covers the entire commercial aviation line from regional jets and… Read More

Air New Zealand shows off first 787-9

Air New Zealand and Boeing displayed the industry’s first 787-9, of which ANZ is the launch customer, in a media show-and-tell today. ANZ touted its black-painted exterior and black-decorated interior for what it called a game-changing airplane that… Read More

American easing away from continuous hubbing, returning to peak banking

American Airlines will ease away from the continuous hubbing that smooths operations at key airports, increases aircraft utilization and cuts costs as it returns to the peak-and-valley hub-and-spoke system adopted decades ago under former CEO Robert Crandall. Although… Read More

Next new, clean sheet airplane around 2030, says Airbus

Airbus currently is planning for the next new, clean sheet airplane around 2030 and now are focusing on incremental improvements to the existing product lines, officials said at the Innovations Days annual media briefing last week in Toulouse…. Read More

Airbus Innovation Days, Part 5: wide body twin development

Kiran Rao, executive vice president, strategy and marketing. Rao discussed the wide-body strategy for Airbus at Innovation Days on Wednesday. The following paraphrasing synopsizes his remarks. More than 3,500 wide bodies have been sold by Airbus, starting with… Read More

Logical conclusions: Airbus wide-body decisions

A330 programme. The long range programme presents no new challenges. However, managing the order book beyond 2016 becomes more challenging due to competition from A350 XWB and Boeing 787. —From the Airbus Group 2013 Annual Report We have… Read More

More A350-800 orders vanish

Twelve more Airbus A350-800 orders vanished as Aircraft Purchase Fleet canceled, according to the latest tally from Airbus. APF is the special purpose company set up for Alitalia Airlines, which is a financial basket case and probably couldn’t… Read More

The case for an A330neo

With the increasing possibility that Airbus will defer or even drop the A350-800, the case for an A330neo becomes much stronger. Absent the A358, Airbus has no effective competition to the Boeing 787-8. The current A330, which we… Read More