Strong 5th season at Boeing

As expected not only Airbus had a "fifth season" in 2013 but also Boeing.

And these are the final numbers:

Gross:
1208 B737 (699 -MAX, 509 -NG)
    17 B747-8
      2 B767
   121 B777
   183 B787
 1531

Net:
1046 B737 (699 -MAX,  347 -NG)
    12 B747-8
      2 B767
  113 B777
  182 B787
1355

Especially the B737NG and the B737MAX had very strong order intakes in December 2013.
All in all 124 B737MAX and 143 B737NG orders were recorded. All but the order for 75 B737MAX and 11 B737-800 were from unidentified customers. Chinese airlines and jet Airways (for 50 B737MAX) are hot suspects for these.
The situation for the B737NG as I described here is a little better now but still Boeing has to sell about 690 B737NG's to fill all productio slots until the B737MAX takes over full B737 production.

One thing that is clear even before the Airbus numbers will be published next Monday is that despite the large December order intakes Airbus outsold Boeing with the A320neo against the B737MAX as Airbus sold 759 A320neo until the end of November. But the recent win at Air Canada (which is not reflected in the 2013 numbers) and flydubai could hint that that could change in 2014 as with the recent announcement of production increases to 47/month for the B737 line Boeing can offer fresh delivery slots. We will see how soon Airbus will hit back...

BREAKING: US Secretary of State Kerry first to fly the A320neo

Apparently Airbus sped up the development effort for the A320neo. It appears that US Secretary of State John Kerry was among the first who were able to fly in the reengined european narowbody during a visit of the Philippines. Look here for details! No mentioning of who is the first customer of the A320neo - but in the end: could it be the US Government???

Boeing also having a "Fifth Season" this year?

After giving an outlook to Airbus' Fifth Season for this year yesterday, I want to look what we can expect from Boeing until the end of the year? Will it also be a record year? The last year was the year were Boeing took in a record number of orders, thanks largely to the B737MAX, which had it's first

Fifth Season Time in Toulouse

The end of the year is near and so it is fifth season time again for John Leahy. Tomorrow we will see if he can sell some 60-90 aircraft to Air Canada, believed to be A320neo and A321neo's (or B737MAX-8/-9 if his counterparts at Boeing succeed).
But there are quite some more sales to complete this year and chances are good that Leahy will top the old record from 2011, when the A320neo had it's first full year of sales.
So what can we expect apart from Air Canada? Another awaited order for narrowbodies could come from Monarch. Both Air Canada and Monarch could also put a CSeries order in their shopping cart,

Lufthansa in "panic mode"?

Today there is news (only in German as of now) that Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines are "downgrading" miles flown with Turkish Airlines in their frequent flyer program "Miles & More". Customers who fly with Turkish Airlines on will only get a quarter of the flown miles as status miles. Austrian has canceled the code sharing with THY altogether effective summer 2014. Also Lufthansa is thinking about reducing their code sharing with THY.
This looks a little bit like Lufthansa being in panic mode. In the last two years, there have been multiple opportunities for Lufthansa to set up a wide ranging partnership with THY to fend off the three large gulf carriers. But the Lufthansa management seemed to be confident to go their way without it. Now that Turkish Airlines expanded in Germany big way, flying to 14 destinations today and just announced another one (Kassel-Calden) and many customers including business class customers flying to the Far East prefer THY due to prices and service, Lufthansa reacts.
The only way this move makes sense is that LH has another big plan on the table. Last week there I saw there were news that Lufthansa and Emirates are talking to each other ... could there be another alliance a la Emirates/Qantas in the making?