Yesterday, United Airlines took delivery of the first of 50 Boeing 787s it has on order, and the first of five expected to be delivered in 2012. United is the first US airline to operate the Boeing Dreamliner, and takes…
Airbus and Boeing claim demand and record backlogs thousands of A320s and 737s requires them to boost production rates to record levels. There’s little doubt that this is true. But while the two OEMs also claim that there is no…
John Newhouse, of the New Yorker magazine, in his 1982 book The Sporty Game, described the “bet the company” decisions involved in developing commercial aircraft. In recent years, with the difficulties with the A380 and 787, his analyses once again…
The aviation industry’s pricing process is generally opaque. Nobody pays retail, even though these are the only prices quoted, Take a look at this chart which is ranked in declining cost per seat. All prices apply to January 2012 and…
Many industry analysts and consultants believe the 100-149 seat segment is the “Bermuda Triangle” for airplane manufacturers. We disagree, and here’s why. It has been the wrong market for some OEMs and for some airplanes. When OEMs tried to meet…
The conventional wisdom from the 1960s through early 2000s that when Boeing or Airbus announces a new airplane, you can expect entry into service 48 months later no longer holds true. We’ve seen significant delays for A380, 787, A400M and…