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Boeing slips to #2 position
Question:
Here is another tidbit I found: Delta Air Lines Inc., the No. 3 U.S. carrier, said on Tuesday it would defer all deliveries of mainline aircraft in 2003 and 2004, mostly Boeing 737-800s. On Wednesday, AMR Corp., the parent of No. 1 carrier American Airlines, said it would take just 11 Boeing aircraft through 2005.
Response:
> Here is another tidbit I found: > Delta Air Lines Inc., the No. 3 U.S. carrier, said on > Tuesday it would defer all deliveries of mainline aircraft > in 2003 and 2004, mostly Boeing 737-800s. On > Wednesday, AMR Corp., the parent of No. 1 carrier American > Airlines, said it would take just 11 Boeing aircraft through > 2005.
I had thought that with AA’s substantial schedule cuts, that the F100s would be going out of service, but I notice that both I and my daughter, on entirely different routes, have F100 legs next week. TMO
Response:
> I had thought that with AA’s substantial schedule cuts, that the > F100s would be going out of service, but I notice that both I > and my daughter, on entirely different routes, have F100 legs > next week. > TMO
The li’l Fokkers ARE being phased out, but not until next year.
Response:
SEATTLE, Oct 16 (Reuters) – For several years Boeing Co. has implored journalists to ignore the growing order backlog at rival Airbus, claiming deliveries, not orders, were what mattered. No more. Boeing’s Seattle-based jetliner unit on Wednesday formally conceded what industry watchers had concluded months ago: it would fall behind Airbus in 2003, even when measured by deliveries, for the first time ever. The gap in 2003 will be small, perhaps as close as 300 to 285 in Airbus’ favor, and analysts see a 50-50 market share going forward. Many industry watchers even say Boeing could benefit by selling fewer jets at higher prices than Airbus. "For Boeing, that means they are not going to be losing money like Airbus will," said independent airline consultant Mike Boyd. "Boeing prefers to stay in business and sometimes good business is walking away from the table." That seems to be what Boeing did in a recent sales campaign with easyJet Plc , which ended with a blockbuster 120-jet deal between Airbus and the booming British-based discount airline — currently an all-Boeing carrier. Airbus reportedly sold the A319 narrow-body jets at nearly a 50 percent discount, or about $3.6 billion, some $500 million less than the price tag on Boeing’s competing 737-800s. The deal sparked a fresh round of complaints from Boeing that Airbus was selling jets below cost to gain market share, something Boeing has publicly refused to do since the late 1990s, when a spate of cheap deals brought a flood of red ink. Boeing Chairman Phil Condit on Wednesday inferred Airbus will lose money on the easyJet deal, saying the campaign proved Boeing will not do "stupid" deals, and rejected Airbus’ claims that it can churn out planes more cheaply. "Every piece of data (shows) that we are as efficient overall or more efficient than Airbus is," Condit told reporters and analysts on a teleconference. "It was a large order and one where our dominant position in low-cost carriers caused our competitor to try to win that," he added. Airbus officials bitterly reject price war charges, saying the jetmaker is profitable that airlines prefer its family of jets in part because they share many common features, making them cheaper to operate. Formed in 1916 in Seattle, Boeing sold its first jetliner, the 707, in 1955, a quarter century before Airbus took off. Including the McDonnell Douglas legacy jet lines it bought in 1997, Boeing has delivered more than 14,000 planes to just over 3,000 for Airbus. But Toulouse, France-based Airbus has an order backlog of about 1,500 aircraft, to 1,200 for Boeing. And with the easyJet order, Airbus is poised to outpace Boeing in new sales for the second time in three years. Besides its strong-selling 737 and 777 models, Boeing’s backlog has shrunk to troubling levels, leaving perhaps two years of production on the other four lines, including its massive 420-seat 747. With the current worst-ever airline slump likely to last into 2005, that leaves little room for Boeing to rebuild orders in time to keep certain lines running profitably, if at all. The 757 narrowbody line has just 32 unfilled orders; the 767 mid-sized wide-body is down to 49; and the 747, increasingly sold as a freighter, has a backlog of just 45.