Lee Monson, Boeing
Business Jets sales VP, will succeed Borge Boeskov as BBJ president
next spring, Mike Bair, Boeing Commercial Aviation Services executive
VP, said here Tuesday.
Monson, a veteran marketing executive at Gulfstream before moving
to the BBJ organization, said Boeskov would reach Boeing's mandatory
retirement age of 65 in June 2002.
Boeskov's leadership and BBJ team efforts have resulted in 71 announced
sales and 56 green aircraft deliveries to completion centers, four
of which are BBJ2s, a variant of the 737-800. There are currently
32 BBJs in service. Eight to ten more aircraft will enter service
before the end of the year, according to Monson.
"Lee's challenge now is to move us past 200 to 300 airplanes,"
Bair quipped.
"Borge's a hard act to follow," said Monson, characterizing
himself as a "rookie" at Boeing.
It will be difficult indeed to sustain BBJ production at its current
level, considering the slowdown in the U.S. economy, Monson said.
Production will decrease from 21 aircraft this year, but Monson
declined to be specific for 2002 and beyond.
"We're going to scale back production. Looking into the future,
I think there's been much said about a soft landing," Monson
explained, a concept in which he believes. The strong growth of
fractional ownership programs will help offset the loss of aircraft
sales to individual buyers.
"There will be six or seven NetJets BBJs in service by the
end of the year," Monson said. Sixteen aircraft have been sold
to EJI/NetJets and BBJ has commitments for an additional 29 airplanes.
Monson also said he's "really excited" about United Airlines'
new fractional ownership program, but he believes it will have little
immediate impact on BBJ sales.
"I applaud their choice of Falcon Jets and Gulfstreams. It
verifies what we're doing in business aviation. But, I certainly
wouldn't start it [referring to the fractional ownership program]
with BBJs," Monson commented. "We're hoping to meet with
them in the long run and sell them some airplanes," he said.
Thus far, BBJ has sold about half of its aircraft in North America,
the remainder split between the Middle East, Europe and Asia. One
was recently sold to Grupo Omnilife SA de CV in Mexico. About a
third have been sold to individuals. Two thirds of the orders have
been from large multi-national corporations and government VIP fleet
operators.
BBJ's biggest problem in the market continues to be its bigger size
compared to other business jets. "'Wow, that's a big airplane,'
people say," Monson conceded. "However, as we see more
businesses use these airplanes, it improves the perception."
Eventually, there may be a BBJ3 to complement the BBJ and BBJ2,
according to Monson. "We're currently involved in internal
design studies," he said. A variant of the Boeing 757 is being
studied, but Boeing Business Jets is a Boeing-General Electric joint
venture. As the 757 comes fitted with a choice of Rolls-Royce or
PW turbofans, not GE engines, this could create problems for the
organization.
Long term, there's always the possibility of a BBJ variant of Boeing's
Sonic Cruiser. Monson, though, says the choice of aircraft will
be dictated by customer demand. Product support will be "critical."
By Fred George
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