Pontifications: Boeing cracks open door to 777 production rate cuts (or not)

March 8, 2015: Boeing cracked open the door March 5 to a production rate reduction on the 777 Classic, the first time since launching the 777X in 2013 that officials have publicly deviated from their insistence the current… Read More

Pontifications: A350 launch aid, Emirates and the A380, Bombardier and U-Turn Al

March 5, 2015: A350 Launch Aid: Boeing and the US Trade Representative got in a big twist around 2006 when Airbus said it would accept more than $1bn in launch aid from Germany for the A350. At that… Read More

Production rates on single-aisles keep going up, up

Figure 1. Airbus and Boeing production rates for the A320 and 737 lines are going up as announced rates and rates under consideration go to lofty levels. Click on image to enlarge. Subscription Required Introduction March 3, 2015:… Read More

Trip report: flying the A350 to Airbus Group annual press conference

By Bjorn Fehrm Introduction Feb. 26, 2015: As part of the invitation to cover Airbus group press conference in Munich on Feb. 27 where the annual results are presented, Airbus offered the journalists joining from South of France… Read More

Odds and Ends: WTO and 777X tax breaks; US airlines vs Middle East; Goldman and Boeing; ExIm Bank

WTO to examine 777X tax breaks: Well, we predicted this in November 2013 when Washington State extended the Boeing 787 tax breaks to the 777X. And it’s happened. The World Trade Organization is going to take a look… Read More

Odds and Ends: Turkish tests A380; Boeing’s cash out; A400M milestone before Airbus Group results

18 Feb 2015: Turkish Airlines is contemplating testing A380 operations according to Blomberg by wet leasing two A380 from Malaysian Airlines. Turkish did the same when they tested the Boeing 777 before ordering it, then by wet leasing 777 from Jet… Read More

Odds and Ends: Tax breaks and job guarantees; New airline analysis blog

Feb. 17, 2015:  Tax breaks and job guarantees: Boeing’s two largest unions in Washington State appear to be making headway this legislative session to get a bill on the floor for a vote that would retroactively tie 2013… Read More

Playing number games with the A380

Feb. 15, 2015: Orders for the Airbus A380 have been slow, almost glacial, since the program was launched in 2000. Despite a 20-year forecast then and every year since by Airbus that suggests there is a need for… Read More

PNAA Conference: Boeing’s Tinseth dismisses Aboulafia forecast of Airbus A320 dominance; firm ” no” on 757RE

Quotations are paraphrased. Feb. 11, 2015: I don’t see a 60% market share for our competition (Airbus, single-aisle airplanes), says Randy Tinseth, VP Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in his presentation today before the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance in… Read More

PNAA Conference: Boeing’s supply chain chief: we are in a more-for-less world today

The quotations are paraphrased. Feb. 11, 2015: The reality is that we are in a more for less world now, says Kent Fisher, vice president and general manager, Supplier Management, for Boeing Commercial Aircraft. The reality is that… Read More