As Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing heads into the future following a better-than-expected 2012 second-quarter net profit of US$967 million, or US$1.27 per share versus the Wall Street consensus of US$1.12 per share, it continues to map out its future widebody strategy that will see new members being added to its popular large twin-engine, long-haul 777 as well as the carbon composite 787 Dreamliner aircraft families. Running ahead in these in-house …Read More
Boeing 737 MAX ups the ante in dogfight with A320neo
At last year’s Paris Air Show, there were blue skies and the airline industry managed to stay relatively healthy despite soaring oil prices and an anaemic global economic recovery, with a year-end industry-wide profit of US$7.9 billion, according to Geneva-based industry body International Air Transport Association (IATA). Fast forward 12 months and the global economy was in a very different shape. Having gone through the fear of contagion in the …Read More
Is consolidation the answer?
In light of the grim future painted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) at its annual summit held in Beijing recently, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, it seems, thinks the airline industry faces an overcrowding problem. He said at the summit: “The number of airlines in the industry is too many. It’s too fragmented.” And the solution that he suggested: Consolidation. Joyce is re-championing an old strategy that more …Read More
Airbus is right on A330 improvement strategy
Having decided against re-engining the twin-aisle medium to long-haul A330 aircraft which is likely to undermine the business case of its A350-800 sibling (“Airbus mulls re-engined A330 along with sharklets“, 5th Mar, 12), Airbus is adopting the least risky option of offering new, higher gross weight variants of the A330 aircraft family that not only will see the A330 being more capable than it has ever been, but also provide …Read More
Boeing 787 could revolutionise US long-haul market
When the first Boeing 787-8 entered service with Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) in September 2011, it marked the beginning of a new era in long-haul international travel, not unlike the introduction of the Boeing 767 on medium-haul international routes back in the 1990s. In the period since then, many more 787s have been built and delivered (Boeing has built 66 787s at press time, including the first one produced …Read More
Revamped 777X may limit sales prospects of Boeing jumbo
There is little doubt that a possible order bonanza for the re-engined narrowbody offering from Chicago-based Boeing, the 737 MAX, at next week’s Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom (UK) is going to be under the media spotlight. However, as the world’s second-largest aircraft manufacturer mulls an upgrade to its highly popular long-haul twin-jet with a 787-styled composite wing, a lighter airframe with advanced aluminium-lithium (Al-Li) material and a …Read More