C919 program in trouble

COMAC’s bid to develop a 150-200 passenger jet is in trouble. According to this report, CFM doesn’t plan to proceed with an assembly line within China for the LEAP-1C that will power the C919. Concerns over intellectual property… Read More

Bombardier CSeries first flight target: still in “coming weeks”

Bombardier announced its second quarter financial results today and repeated in its press release the first flight of its CSeries will be in “the coming weeks.” News articles are here and here. An earnings call is at 10… Read More

Airbus exec outlines goals for Washington State supply chain effort

Washington State suppliers who want to do business with Airbus don’t have to open new shops in Alabama or elsewhere globally to support the European company, its top supply official in the US said last week. We sat… Read More

Fuel burn A320 v 737

While on our SAS flight from Longyearbyen to Oslo, we browsed the SAS magazine airplane descriptions and it contained fuel burn per seat in litres for each fleet type. SAS operates the 319/320/321 and 737-600/700/800. Seating is as… Read More

Airbus comes up for air, responds to Boeing’s Form 41 reliance

Airbus came up for air from the Paris Air Show and provided this response on the DOT Form 41 debate. Readers can now compare closely Boeing’s response to our queries with the Airbus response and draw their own… Read More

Paris Air Show, Day 3: A320, 737 production rates of 50+ seen

Highlights from the show, as we see it: Boeing said the entry-in-service for the 737 MAX will be accelerated from the fourth quarter 2017 to the third quarter. Southwest Airlines of the USA is the first operator. Bloomberg… Read More

The debate over using DOT Form 41in comparing A320 and 737 costs

Long time readers know that we don’t think much of the veracity of data filed with the US Department of Transportation under Form 41, detailing maintenance and fuel costs. We know from a consultant who helped an airline… Read More

Figuring seat counts A320 v 737 families

Airbus and Boeing use different seating assumptions when comparing each others’ airplanes. As one of the charts in a previous post shows, Boeing’s assumptions tend to favor Boeing. Airbus assigns more seats to its airplanes than does Boeing… Read More

737NG-to-MAX production Plans and comparing the 737 with the A320/321

Boeing is gearing up for the transition from the 737 Next Generation to the 737 MAX at its Renton plant in Washington State. During pre-Paris Air Show briefings at Boeing last month, embargoed until today, Boeing officials detailed… Read More

Comparing the 737 and the A320: the story continues

The war of words between Airbus and Boeing continues over the A320 and the 737, with each company boasting its airplanes are better than the competitors. The competing positions were evident in the pre-Paris Air Show briefings from… Read More