No Sales Yet, But Boeing Says 717 Just Right for Business
Express
Launched a couple months ago at EBACE in Geneva, Boeing brings
the concept of its 717 Business Express corporate shuttle to NBAA
hoping to set the stage for its first sale in its primary market
- the U.S. corporate fleet.
In Orlando this week, the marketing mavens for the Business
Express will announce a customized support package for the airplane,
developed using the experience Boeing has gained supporting corporate
and private operators of the Boeing Business Jet. The package
will include crew training designed for the corporate world -
as opposed to commercial aviation, for which the 717 was originally
developed - plus a variety of spare-parts kits the potential Business
Express operator will need to put the 717 into shuttle operation.
There will also be an extended five-year warranty for the Long Beach, CA-built
717 airframe, and Boeing is talking with Rolls-Royce about extending
the warranty on the BR715 engine that powers the small narrowbody,
Business Express sales director Thad Dworkin told Show News.
The airplane is being sold strictly as a corporate shuttle with
seating for 40-80 passengers, and not as a "poor man's BBJ,"
according to Dworkin. Price, including a business-class shuttle-type
interior is $27 million, including the airstair (which is not included
in the price of 717s sold into airline fleets). A "green"
Business Express can be bought for $25.4 million.
Even though there are no sales yet, the program "is not expensive
to launch since we haven't made a derivative airplane," notes
Dworkin, who says Boeing has projected sales of four 717 Business
Expresses per year. There is a 12-15-month lead-time on the aircraft,
with the first possible delivery in September 2004, and the second
three months later.
Primary competitors for the 717 Business Express - which has
a range with 80 passengers of around 2,000 nmi without auxiliary
fuel tanks - are the Embraer 170/190 and the Canadair CRJ700/900.
