Boeing's Bair Says Buyers of 7E7 Are Not Bearish at All
A number of airlines, "a lot more than we have announced," are in the final stages of formalizing contracts for Boeing's new 7E7, says senior program vp Mike Bair. Market response to the new "mid-market" twin-aisle airplane has been "nothing short of phenomenal," he says.
Last week, marketing vp Randy Baseler said that 24 airlines have placed deposits covering up to 200 aircraft. Adds Bair, "We have made proposals to more than 30 airlines, covering 600 airplanes—and those were all requested, the airlines asked for the proposals. It doesn't mean that they'll all result in contracts, but it's a good harbinger." The first European orders for the aircraft, from First Choice of the UK and Italy's Blue Panorama, were announced earlier this month.
Boeing says that orders will be announced when the customer sees fit, and that the company is not "holding back`' any orders for the show.
Bair says Boeing is seeing a "land rush…as carriers try to get early positions" in the first two or three years of 7E7 production. "Few of the aircraft covered by outstanding proposals are to be delivered more than five years after service entry," Bair says. Production numbers for the first two years "are in the low 90s," and Boeing is planning for rates "between seven and ten a month."
The customers represent a cross-section of carriers, according to Bair: "Big, little, well distributed geographically, although there's a preponderance of interest in Asia because it's the healthiest market." However, deliveries of the stretched 7E7-9 with the same capacity as the A330-200, and the most interesting version for Middle East carriers—have been pushed back to 2012.
