Company Watch - Boeing

AirGuide Business, July 21, 2008

7/21/2008

Air China said Wednesday it plans to buy 45 Boeing aircraft in one of China's biggest airliner purchases. The order will include 15 Boeing 777 and 30 Boeing 737 aircraft, Beijing-based Air China said on its Web site. It said the list price for the aircraft is $6.3-billion but the final price paid would be lower than that. Air China said the purchase would increase its fleet capacity by about 35 per cent and help to reinforce Beijing's status as a transportation hub. A Boeing spokeswoman in Beijing, Dai Ni, said she could not confirm that Air China and Boeing had agreed to a sale. 7/16/2008

Air India's newest Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) airplane arrived Saturday in Farnborough, England, ahead of Monday's opening of the Farnborough International Air Show. The 777-300ER will be on display during the air show highlighting its new livery, interior and passenger amenities. The 777-300ER is the 10th 777 delivered to Air India from its December 2005 order of 68 Boeing jetliners. The aircraft, named "Jammu and Kashmir" in keeping with Air India's tradition of naming its 777s after the various states of India, has a three-class configuration, including four first-class, 35 executive class and 303 economy seats. The airline will operate the 777-300ER on its India to United States via London route. 7/14/2008

All Nippon Airways will install Airline Partners Boeing blended winglets on its 16 767-300ERs beginning April 1, 2009, as part of a three-year plan to cut CO2 emissions. ANA expects to increase efficiency 5% and save 2,100 tonnes of CO2 per year per aircraft. 7/15/2008

Nigerian airline Arik ordered at the Farnborough Airshow seven Boeing 737 single-aisle jets and said it intended to purchase four 747-8 airliners. 7/15/2008

Babcock & Brown leased and delivered two former ATA Airlines Boeing 757-200s to Ethiopian Airlines. Lease agreements are five years each. B&B said it is "in discussions with several parties" regarding two additional former ATA aircraft. 7/18/2008

Boeing commercial plane chief Scott Carson said earlier this year that the company was not likely to hit 1,000 net orders for the fourth year running. Boeing will have more than 600 orders for the year so far when it adds deals announced at Farnborough to its order book. Last year it took an industry-record 1,413 net orders, easing ahead of rival Airbus, even though the company had made downbeat comments about order growth. 7/18/2008

Boeing has a much lower exposure to the US market, which it hopes will lessen the blow if airlines' woes continue. Only 10.5 percent of Boeing's order book is destined for US airlines, compared with about 60 percent during the last downturn after September 11. Airbus says 11 percent of its current order book is from US customers. Even so, Boeing is worried by the sharp rise in oil prices, chiefly for its potential effect on the world's economies. Boeing makes no official forecast for oil prices, but said its hired consultants are forecasting USD$70 to USD$80 a barrel for the longer term, as supply and demand eventually balance out. Crude oil futures traded around USD$136 per barrel on Thursday. 7/18/2008

Boeing is confident it will not face mass cancellations of jet orders from the world's airlines, even as they come under massive strain from soaring oil prices, hard on the heels of the biggest buying spree in the industry's history. After a three-year boom in sales, the US plane maker has 3,661 aircraft in its order book, worth more than USD$270 billion at list prices, to be delivered over the next six years or so. Rival Airbus has 3,663 planes to deliver. Some industry insiders and analysts predict that as much as 30 percent of that backlog will end up being cancelled as emerging and cash-strapped airlines get cold feet when it comes to handing over the bulk of the money for their planes. But Boeing is holding fast to its view that the fallout will not be nearly as bad as some predict. 7/18/2008

Boeing announced firm orders for 197 planes worth $23.6 billion this week, bringing its tally this year to 672 planes. Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Scott Carson has predicted fewer than 1,000 orders in 2008 after 1,413 in 2007. 7/17/2008

Boeing boosted its at the Farnborough Airshow tally to 197 planes worth $23.1 billion with an apparent headline grabbing deal with Air China for 45 of its planes worth $6.3 billion. But the Air China deal, along with two others from Etihad Airways and Malaysia Airways, were already on Boeing's books -- attributed to unidentified buyers. Removing those from the tally, the Chicago-based plane maker's deals at the world's biggest air show drop to just $5.6 billion. 7/17/2008

Boeing Machinists who assemble the company's jetliners filled the former home of the Seattle Sonics on Wednesday to authorize their union to strike if a new labor contract can't be reached. They are demanding a much bigger share of The Boeing Co.'s success of the past three years -- and they are prepared to walk in September and shut down Boeing's jetliner production if they don't get it. 7/17/2008