On The Record with
BORGE BOESKOV, PRESIDENT, BOEING BUSINESS JETS
Even Boeing is Surprised by BBJ Success

BBJ President Borge Boeskov.

"I remember when we kicked this thing off in 1996 -- Jack Welch, Phil Condit and I were having a sandwich and Jack turned to me and said, 'Borge, OK, when we get asked, how many of these are we going to sell?'

"I said well, we did our business plan on six to eight a year. Six is what we expect, eight is the optimistic case. Jack replied 'That's too low, and besides that, never mention a single digit number-that's just not right. Why we don't we make it 10 per year?' And he looked over at Condit and said, right Phil? So we agreed that at that first press conference we would say we expect to sell 10 a year.

"Well, the first full year of production we delivered 28 or 29 "green" aircraft -- nearly three times as many as Jack said!"

The success of the BBJ since then has taken everyone by surprise. Announced orders stand at 71, but several more have been taken and more are pending since that number was disclosed at last October's NBAA in New Orleans, Boeing BBJ president Borge Boeskov told Show News.

Some 27 BBJs have now been completed and are in service. They have racked up 9,600 flight hours, with a dispatch reliability of 99.8 percent. Earlier problems of inadequate completion to meet demand have now been pretty much straightened out, and cost overruns and delays are being brought under control.

"In the beginning we were criticized for having too much completion capacity but even that was outstripped by the sales success," said Boeskov. "Now we can cope with a steady 20 a year."

He regards Jack Welch and Phil Condit as futurists who anticipated a paradigm shift in business aviation away from sheer speed toward economic results from a business tool.

"In the past we all thought of an airplane just to get you there from A to B, and the faster you can go the better because that means less time spent in this miserable tube," said Boeskov. "But Jack Welch and Phil Condit said no, no, no -- it is more about whether you can have a machine that economically can bring you and your entourage with you, if choose to have an entourage, and get you there in comfort. You can bring your office along so you can communicate with anyone you want, you can have a proper bedroom and sleep properly, you can have a shower. And you can walk around and exercise. The result is you can be much more productive.

"All of them, especially the GV and Global Express, talk about the the office in the sky, but the real fact is they just don't have room for all this stuff."

At $38 million "green" the BBJ compares with both the GV and Global Express, although its interior completion and painting adds another $8-12 million.

For Christmas Boeskov took the CEO of one of America's Top 10 companies (an avid traveler and a GV owner) to Australia and back in BBJ. "He couldn't believe how refreshed and relaxed he was when he got off from this long trip," Boeskov said.

By John Morris