NEO and MAX

In the last few days we saw a few more orders and commitments for the A320neo and B737 MAX. Here is a list:

A320neo:

50 Qatar (+30 options)

50 ALAFCO (+30 options)

30 ACG

45 Spirit Airlines

30 Volaris

B737 MAX:

201 Lion Air (+150 options)

35 ACG

So we now know three committed customers for the B737 MAX out of the nine customers that committed for 700 aircraft - the third one of course being American Airlines, triggering the launch of the B737 MAX with their rejection of the also proposed Boeing NSA and their commitment to take 100 B737 MAX and an option for another 60.

The Lion Air commitment is significant:

Dubai Air Show

If an article published by Reuters is correct, we will see a major order for more B777-300ER's from Emirates at the Dubai Air Show, which opens on Sunday. Rumors are, that Emirates will order another 30-50 of the long-range twin. They still have 41 B777-300ER on order. At the recent order pace that would be good for another 3.5 years. By then the first A350-900 aircraft should arrive. Ordering more B777-300ER could have the following rationalities then:

• Just more growth...well, it is Emirates!
• Dumping the A350-900/-1000 order altogether - unlikely!
• These will in fact be orders for a B777-8 or B777-9 - not too likely at this point, but not completely impossible!

Also, who knows - rumor is that Emirates will also order 30 more A380 - maybe they will announce to be the launch customer for the A380-900...

Embraer decides in favor of EJet's

Embraer decided to abandon plans for a new 5 abreast aircraft for now and instead opted to reengine to EJet's in the latter half of the decade - EIS could be in 2018. Given that Embraer could not do both at the same time - financially, but also due to manpower restrictions, as the KC-390 is in development also, this seems to be a wise decision.

Let us look at the timeline: in 2018 all new engines currently under development for the MRJ, CSeries, the A320neo, the B737MAX, the C919 and the MS-21 will be in service. Of course one could ask at least in case of the latter two if the EIS dates for these will stay where they are now. But Embraer will have a good idea how the engines - two versions of the LEAP (the C919 LEAP-1C will have the same turbo machinery as the A320neo LEAP-1A) and three types of the GTF (MRJ, CSeries and A320neo/MS-21) - are doing during development. An EIS in 2018 would probably mean an engine selection about 5 years earlier, around 2013, maybe 2014. By that time the PW1200G and PW1500G are flying at least on the respective aircraft prototypes and the first PW1100G engine should run on ground (the LEAP-1A seems to be a bit behind).

News about MAX

Jon Ostrower (Flightblogger)  and Scott Hamilton both are reporting about a presentation given by Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh at Goldman Sachs.

New blog on the bloglist

I added a new blog on the right side: "The Blog by Javier" - I highly recommend his entry about the break-even of the Boeing B787 programme!