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On the Record with
BORGE BOESKOV, PRESIDENT, BOEING BUSINESS
JETS
"Were very excited about Farnborough. And we have a real BBJ here." Boeing Business Jet president Borge Boeskov is proudly showing off not only the latest BBJ to enter service, but his boss's airplane.
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Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit isn't
here at Farnborough just to show off two of his new products --
indeed, without them he wouldn't have been able to come at all. "It used to be you would sit on an airplane just hoping you would get to the other end. There are times now when I'm not done working and the airplane is starting down and I'm not quite ready yet," Condit told Show News. The Boeing Company does not shut down for the week of Farnborough, and Condit isn't "absent" from it with his office in the sky, now parked as his office at Farnborough in the static display area. "The company doesn't stop. Instead of there being a one week pause you can carry on very well, everybody's connected, we all use e-mail, we all talk to each other all the time," Condit said. From his laptop in his London hotel, or from his bed-and-shower equipped BBJ here on the ramp, he can stay connected. "I will probably take the laptop out to the airplane," he said. So if you see a large man huddled over his laptop in the corner of the cabin, it's probably Phil Condit writing the "Hello from Farnborough" message he promised to all 160,000 employees of Boeing, every one of whom has an e-mail account and every one of whom he can reach with just two or three keystrokes from the BBJ.-John Morris |
For the BBJ here on the ramp has just been delivered to Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit as his office in the sky.
It's a quantum leap for Boeing's top executive, who until now has bounced around the world in a much smaller Challenger, without the bed, shower and high speed communications system of the BBJ.
"We compared an actual schedule for Phil Condit," said Boeskov, "and the BBJ will save him a lot of time over the Challenger because he can sleep, shower and answer his e-mail in it instead of going to a downtown hotel." A nine day trip can now take just 4-1/2 days, he said.
For example, on the Challenger Condit would leave Sunday for a board meeting Monday in New York, see a customer in Paris on Tuesday morning and another in Europe in the afternoon, then on to Moscow, China, Japan, and back to Seattle. On the BBJ he wouldn't need the Sunday night hotel in New York, and similar time savings add up to more than four days on such a trip.
Eleven of the BBJs are now in service worldwide (list price $38 million "green," interior completion and painting adds another $8-12 million). Orders total 56, and although more have been sold, the numbers will not be announced until the National Business Aviation Association meeting in New Orleans in October, Boeskov said. He expects big businesses to account for about half his sales, successful entrepreneurs one third, and heads of state and governments the rest.
The first of three BBJs was recently delivered to Saudi Arabia, and since then Boeskov's telephone has been ringing off the hook. "People have seen it, and they're calling asking 'Can we have one now?,'" he said.
While the BBJ can fly up to 6,000 nmi, it needs a belly full of extra fuel tanks to do it, leaving little room for the bags. So BBJ 2 is on the way-a standard Boeing 737-800 offering 25% more cabin space and a lot more room for the luggage. Price tag: $46 million "green" and $52-58 million with completed interior.
Boeske said an even bigger BBJ 3 is under consideration, combining the fuselage of the Boeing 757-200 airliner with the wing of the 757-300 to give 7,000 nmi range and a cabin some 25% larger than the BBJ 2. The price? Likely about double, he said.
By John Morris
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