Posted by Seth on January 26, 2010 under News | 
There has been quite a bit of reporting on the new Air New Zealand economy product that will be offered on their Boeing 777-300s and 787 Dreamliner planes that they will be taking delivery of starting later in 2010. The idea makes a lot of sense. Lie-flat seating is great but most folks cannot afford the cost of a business or first class seat. Buying (or hoping to get) multiple coach seats has often worked but even still the experience wasn’t incredibly comfortable. Air New Zealand is looking to both monetize that demand and also improve the quality of the experience.
The SkyCouch will work by having a leg-rest that rises up to a fully horizontal surface, effectively extending the seat cushion to completely fill the space between the seat-backs
In addition, they’ve designed the seats so that the armrests retract fully up into the seats rather than jutting out a bit like most current models do. Overall it should be a rather comfortable option.
As long as you aren’t all that tall.
With the layout of the cabin Air New Zealand cannot make the seats particularly wide. They will almost certainly be about the same width as the current 777 seats and possibly even narrower for the 787 seats. That means the average length of the couch is going to be about 66 inches. And figure about 30 inchs wide on the “couch” based on an average seat pitch of 32 inches and needing to account for the thickness of the seat back. That is bigger than many business class seats – definitely wider – but it also has some serious limits. There is a wall on one side and the aisle on the other. Folks who don’t curl up will end up with their legs sticking out into the aisle. And getting two people into a 30” wide bed is a lot more cozy than I recall of my experiences in a single bed (39” x 75”) freshman year in college.
Looking at the photo from the ANZ marketing group I have to wonder how tall those models are and just how much his neck would hurt after sleeping for any extended period of time in that position.
Don’t get me wrong – lie-flat coach is great. I got to experience it last night on a Seattle – Newark flight and I slept like a baby and was mostly functional upon arrival this morning. I’m just not sure that the premium that ANZ will be charging – estimated at an extra 50% for the extra space – is really going to make sense. Especially when folks keep sticking their legs out into the aisle and getting awakened as the carts or other passengers pass by.
Some additional coverage of the new product can be found here:
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Posted by Seth on January 24, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Standing underneath the wing of a 747-800F on the assembly line is an incredibly humbling experience. The plane is simply enormous in a way that being inside it or seeing it from the terminal simply doesn’t convey. But there we were, a group of about 20 aerophiles and a couple of Boeing employees, wandering across the factory floor of the wide-body assembly plant in Everett, Washington. It was phenomenal!
I was quite fortunate to be invited along on this behind-the-scenes event. We spent a full day touring the main assembly lines in the Seattle area, both the narrow-body facility in Renton and the wide-body facility in Everett. We were accompanied by engineers from Boeing rather than regular tour guides and we were able to ask random nitty-gritty detail questions. Oh, and were close enough to touch the planes in some cases.
Our morning consisted of a tour of the 737 assembly line in Renton, Washington. The line isn’t open to regular tours so getting inside was a special treat. We got to see planes at various stages of the 11-day final assembly cycle, from fuselage arrival to wing joining to interior fitting to rolling out the door for painting and first flight. The fuselages arrive on rail cars and are transferred into the assembly building. Two weeks later they roll out the other end as fully assembled airplanes.
Every plane in the factory is marked with its registration number – N1786B – so that it is ready to fly when it is completed. But they are all the same registration, something that is rather unusual. Boeing can do this because the planes fly only once with that registration number. The destination of that first flight is the paint shop a few miles away where the fuselage is repainted into the customer’s livery and the new registration number is applied.
A number of mementos from the history of the assembly facility are on display throughout the factory. It has a rather impressive history – over 60 years of assembly across a number of product lines – and the stories relayed by the memorabilia are wonderful. My favorite was the737 wingtip on the wall. It was a segment of wing about 18 inches long painted in the familiar colors of the Southwest livery and it sticks off the wall with a plaque underneath:
Dear Boeing:
Thanks for the new winglets. We don’t need this anymore.
Love,
Southwest Airlines
A cool souvenir celebrating the end of their winglet conversion project.
The second half of the day was spent on the ground in Everett, site of the wide-body assembly plant that Boeing operates. They build the 747s, 767s, 777s and 787s in Everett and the assembly lines are running around the clock these days on all the lines. Obviously much of the focus is on the Dreamliner but the 777 line is still cranking out new deliveries and the 747-800 line is working quickly towards having the first production aircraft ready for delivery. Our tour was very different than the one given to the public (that I took back in March). Rather than looking down on the assembly line from a platform six floor up we were down on the ground, walking amongst the planes so close that we could reach out and touch them. It was awesome.
The size of the planes is hard to appreciate when in them. I’m sitting in a 737-900ER as I type this and I have some concept of how big it is. But seeing it from the ground changes the perspective immensely. Even the two engines of one wing of the 747-8, two engines that are exactly the same, look to be much different sizes because of the perspective from which they are viewed on the ground. In reality they are both enormous.
Our tour included things like watching the wings be riveted together and sealed, landing gear tests of the 777 (they put the plane on jacks and drop the floor out from under it so the gear can swing) and a deployed ram air turbine (RAT) engine. The RAT is an emergency generator that deploys when the aircraft loses engine power. It is basically fan that generates power from the air rushing by as the plane glides. It can provide enough poser to keep the avionics and other critical cockpit systems operating while the pilots get the engines running again. Just seeing it is one thing. Getting to hear the stories of the design and testing of the system from the engineer who worked the certification flight was top-notch. It takes a special amount of faith in your design, engineering and manufacturing group to be willing to get in an airplane, climb to altitude and then cut the engine and hope that the backup system kicks in. But this guy did it and had a great story to tell.
We say about 30 different wide-body aircraft for a dozen different carriers in various stages of assembly – all in the same building. It isn’t surprising that bicycles are the preferred means of conveyance in the factory; the spaces to cover are too great for walking all the time.
Of course, like any good tour, we finished up in the gift shop. No complaints there, however, as they have all sorts of cool aero-geek toys to play with.
A special thanks to the guys who organized the event and invited me along; I hope I made the cut to be asked back for next year.
Posted by Seth on December 15, 2009 under 1232, 1522, News |
Sweet. Really, really awesome. That was really beautiful to watch.
Not much else to add – there is plenty to still be done before the Dreamliner enters into commercial service – but it is always fun to see the technology of flight advance.
Posted by Seth on December 8, 2009 under News |
Wrapping up a six-month long RFP process, United Airlines announced this morning firm orders for 50 new wide-body aircraft and options on 100 additional planes. The order is split right down the middle between Airbus and Boeing, with the initial selection of the A350-900 and the B787-8 types. While it seems that such an order might be a function of inability to decide which single type is better for the carrier, United sees it a smart compromise, being able to choose the right-sized aircraft for the particular destination at hand and that the numbers from taking that approach are better than a single aircraft type.
Right-sizing the fleet
The most striking number from the new order appears to be the average plane size. Specifically, these planes are a lot smaller than the ones they are replacing. Even if United keeps the same frequencies on all of their current routes they will be drawing down passenger capacity by about 19% as these planes are smaller than the ones they are replacing. And there will be similar cargo reductions as well. Cargo capacity on a route-specific basis is a significant contributor to profitability so that all has an impact. The executives answering questions this morning suggest that such limitations will be overcome by offering direct flights to more destinations rather than connecting passengers and cargo through hubs and stops along the way, though no specific destinations or routes were discussed. The executives also suggested that they are planning for “capacity discipline” (an oft-repeated term) for the down cycles in the industry rather than the upswings.
Is this a short-sighted move? Certainly having an airline planning for max capacity at the highest peak makes no sense. After all, the industry rarely spends extended amounts of time in that position. But planning to build an airline that is right sized at the bottom of the market seems to lack a bit of foresight and optimism. It certainly doesn’t seem like a growth strategy.
Delivery Dates
United expects to take delivery of the initial order of planes starting in 2016 and extending through 2019. The 2016 date is an interesting one. The 50 new planes are expected to come online over a four year period starting seven years from now. Why commit now to such an order so far out? Apparently because Boeing and Airbus were willing to make some deals during the downturn in the economy. United felt that the time was right to negotiate on these deals and to commit to them. The actual cash outlay numbers are pretty low – only $60MM over the next 3 years and $152MM over the next 5 – so the initial commitment isn’t all that significant. And they were also able to negotiate “significant deferral flexibility and substitution rights” on the orders so there does seem to be some upside to the move today. It also commits them to actually making the move, something that is good for the company in the long run. With the minimal initial cash outlay and the backstop financing that they received from both carriers they should be on reasonably solid ground in that regard.
Costs and Savings
One of the more interesting numbers shared in the conference call was $400MM. That is the amount that United estimates they would save annually on fuel if they flew the existing 767 and 747 routes with 787s and A350s. That is a lot of money to save and demonstrates just how significant the efficiencies of the newer aircraft are. But it also belies the fact that the newer planes will carry 19% fewer passengers. The cost savings are nice but there are going to be some inherent revenue losses as well so that does not necessarily translate over directly to the bottom line.
From a pilot contract perspective the new fleet-types are covered under the existing contract through a clause that mathematically figures the new rates for those pilots. That being said, the deliveries are not going to start until 2016 so there is plenty of time for future negotiations to happen.
One significant open question is how the planes will be configured. Currently there are a number of 767s and 777s (which these new planes are also eventually going to replace) configured for domestic service. They are mostly used between the hubs and for service to Hawaii. There is no real indication as to whether some of the new birds will also be pressed into domestic service and as of now the folks in the PR office don’t have an answer to that question.
In the mean time, it seems reasonable to express cautious optimism when looking at United’s plans. New planes are good and having more of them (potentially 150 versus ~90 wide bodies today) is also good. Of course, they are smaller and the airline seems to be planning in a retrenchment mode rather than a growth mode which seems to belie the mantra of longer, thinner routes so who knows.
Posted by Seth on December 8, 2009 under News |
Back when Delta acquired Northwest Airlines one of the interesting discussions was about their fleet. Specifically they had very little fleet commonality. On the plus side, such an arrangement allowed them to integrate their pilots pretty easily since no one was too much at risk of losing a job to someone from the other side. On the down side, however, it raised all sorts of questions about the future of the fleet, which planes would be retired and which new planes would be joining the fleet.
Northwest was to be the North American launch customer for the 787 Dreamliner. I even saw one on the assembly line back in March with the Northwest logo on the bit of the tail that was already painted. And officially they still are such. But since the acquisition closed earlier this summer those plans have been put into a bit of limbo.
That was magnified this week when the carrier’s CFO, Hank Halter, suggested that the carrier is not interested in adding any more new aircraft orders to their fleet plans. That might not be huge news or even count the 18 pending 787 deliveries out, but there are some other bits that suggest the Dreamliner may not fly anytime soon with a widget on the tail.
In a recent regulatory filing Delta didn’t include the 787s in their fleet plan through 2012. Even the most pessimistic folks I know don’t think that the 787 delays will stretch that long. Executives have also repeatedly stated that the current 777 fleet can meet the carrier’s needs and also that they have not allocated capital for the acquisition of the Dreamliners previously ordered by Northwest.
Those orders supposedly can be converted to 777 orders so maybe that’s the way Delta will go. With all the delays and then the consolidation it isn’t too surprising that Delta is willing to walk away from those aircraft right now. What will Boeing do with the delivery slots? Hard to say. I’m sure there are some customers who are quite anxious to get a few now planes in their fleet sooner than not so they’ll most likely find a home. But not with Delta. At least that doesn’t seem likely right now.
Posted by Seth on June 23, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Just when it seemed like Boeing was finally really making progress in getting the 787 Dreamliner into the air they’ve hit another snag. This time it seems that there are structural deficiencies in the “side-of-body” section of the plane, requiring that area to be reengineered to provide additional support. This was discovered during the testing of one of the planes on the full-scale static test rig and was announced this morning.
First flight and first delivery will be rescheduled following the final determination of the required modification and testing plan. It will be several weeks before the new schedule is available. The 787 team will continue with other aspects of testing on Airplane #1, including final gauntlet testing and low-speed taxiing. Work will also continue on the other five flight test aircraft and the subsequent aircraft in the production system.
Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said a team of experts has already identified several potential solutions.
"Consideration was given to a temporary solution that would allow us to fly as scheduled, but we ultimately concluded that the right thing was to develop, design, test and incorporate a permanent modification to the localized area requiring reinforcement. Structural modifications like these are not uncommon in the development of new airplanes, and this is not an issue related to our choice of materials or the assembly and installation work of our team," Carson said.
The good news is that they are continuing with the other testing needed to get the plane ready to fly, but they are still looking at a delay of “several weeks” before the new schedule is even announced, so figure that the entire delivery schedule will push a couple months now. Not good news for the manufacturer or the airlines who have been waiting for years to receive their new planes. Then again, the airlines don’t have to pay for the planes until they are delivered so the delay here – in the midst of one of the most significant industry downturns in history – might not be such a bad thing for the carriers.
I like that Boeing is going to just wait to get the plane actually into its final configuration before putting it up in the air but the additional delay certainly is frustrating – and I’m not even financially vested in the success of the program.
Posted by Seth on April 24, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Sure, it is a couple years behind schedule, but better late than never, right? Over the past week there has been a ton of activity at Boeing’s Everett assembly facility, all focused on getting the 787 Dreamliner out of the hangar and into the air for its first flight. That flight is now expected to occur within the next week according to the rumors flying around Seattle’s northern suburbs.
In the past week the stress test plane (ZY997) has gone through the last of its static tests, deflecting the wings almost 20 feet from normal. In normal flight operations the deflection is only about 5 feet and the 20 foot deflection is actually beyond the max that the plane is rated for. Still, there is likely to be yet another test that goes even further, though Boeing still has not stated whether they will test deflection to failure. They did that for the 777 and the video of the wings bending and then shattering is truly phenomenal.
In addition to the static stress tests Boeing has also been putting the first plane to fly (ZA001) through its paces with software tests designed to simulate all aspects of flight without actually starting the engines or getting the plane off the ground. The so-called “gauntlet test” was completed successfully and was the last step necessary to complete before the plane rolls out of the hangar and onto the taxi-way of Everett Field and then, shortly thereafter, into the skies over Washington.
There are a few other test cycles that will need to be completed before the plane is truly ready to head airborne, but those mostly involve the engines and other systems that cannot be run while the plane is inside the building. Scuttlebutt in the area says that Rolls Royce, the engine provider of the initial test & delivery planes, was in Everett last weekend very quietly installing their final test rigs on ZA001. With those in place there is basically nothing stopping Boeing from putting the bird in the sky as soon as they are ready.
It will almost certainly roll from the hangar to the parking position on the field under the cover of darkness – Boeing does that for all their planes so that they don’t freak out drivers on the highway that the ramp crosses just outside the hangar. But I’d expect that first flight will happen in daylight hours. It appears from everything I’ve heard that Boeing does not intend to issue a press release in advance of the flight so there won’t really be any true warning that it is going to happen. At this point I expect that a number of plane spotters and photographers are just setting up camp outside the Everett facility. I know I would be if I lived out that way.
Posted by Seth on March 1, 2009 under Uncategorized |
With an eleven hour layover in Seattle yesterday I felt compelled to get out of the airport and actually do something useful with my time. And since the Seattle area is still home to the major assembly facilities for Boeing, a visit to see the big birds being put together made sense to me. A PriceLined rental car and I was on my way up to Everett, Washington (~45 minutes north of the airport) to visit the Future of Flight museum and factory tour.
The tour is pretty amazing. They don’t allow any electronics of any sort on the tour, so no photographs, but standing in the world’s largest building by volume and watching the planes being put together is pretty awesome. The doors for each of the six bays are ~350 feet wide and ~80 feet tall. Everything is oversized. We were able to see the last of the 747-400Fs being assembled (the line is converting to the 747-800 now), about nine 777s under construction – including the 777th 777 which will be delivered to Air France in a few weeks once it is complete. The assembly process for these planes is pretty interesting to see in action. Getting to see the planes in the various states of assembly and moving through the process was particularly cool. Hearing that they can put all 3 million pieces of a 777 together from start to finish in 17 days was downright incredible.
Most exciting for me on the tour was seeing the 787 Dreamliner assembly line. Despite all the delays that Boeing has experienced with the 787s the six or so on the line were looking very much like real airplanes at this point (and the windows really are a lot bigger than what you typically get today). I think they might actually be able to get one of them in the air in Q2 ‘09 as they’ve most recently revised their schedule to. One of the women on the tour was a Boeing employee on the 787 line. I overheard her describing to her mother the parts she works on and how the whole process was going from a point of view of an employee rather than a Boeing talking head, which was an interesting change of pace.
We also got to see one of the three DreamLifter planes that they have in service right now. These are 747s that have been converted into super freighters to carry pieces of the 787 assemblies from around the world to the Everett facility for final assembly. The thing is HUGE, able to fit a full pair of wings inside or major chunks of the fuselage. Very, very cool. Plus, we could see it from the parking lot so I actually got a photo of it.
One of the more interesting things about the Everett assembly facility is that Boeing actually doesn’t own the airport there. Paine Field is owned by the county and Boeing waits their turn for flight operations just like all the other folks who use it for their private planes. I saw a whole bunch of single engine props coming and going while waiting there, but no big planes flying as it was a Saturday and the majority of the factory was off-duty.
In addition to the factory tour there is also a small museum at the Future of Flight facility. It is not worth going to unless you are also going on the main tour. There was a traveling exhibit on display from Air France celebrating their 75th anniversary and it had some neat things from their history. There is also a 727 cockpit interior, the nose gear from a 777 and a model interior of a 787 on display, but the exhibits do not justify a visit unto themselves. That being said, there is the “stratodeck” on top of the building that has phenomenal views of the field, including the pads where the planes are parked while undergoing their initial flight testing and awaiting delivery to the airlines. Access to the stratodeck is free and they have the local ATC tower radio playing so you can listen in as the planes come and go. With a longer lens I am pretty sure I could’ve gotten some great shots of the planes waiting, and I’m sure that the deck will be packed when the 787 finally rolls out of the paint hanger and onto the flight line for its maiden voyage.
Closer to the Seattle airport is another Boeing facility where the 737s are assembled. That one isn’t open for factory tours but they do have the Museum of Flight (not a Boeing thing but at their airport) there. This is much more similar to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy facility in terms of what they have on display, lots and lots of planes from the history of flight. I got there after it closed for the day but there were a few planes out on the lawn that I was able to get a pretty good look at.
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If you’re passing through the Seattle area and have any aerogeek in your blood I highly recommend visiting the Future of Flight facility. There are a few other smaller museums around Paine field that I missed due to a lack of time, but they are also supposed to be pretty amazing. They include:
Definitely a worthwhile way to spend a few hours and see some very cool airplane stuff.
Posted by Seth on February 8, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Well, the weekend of partying with the folks at Continental has finally ended. I’m on a plane now on my last flight, from Austin to Newark, and the shift from indulgence and celebration to work. Yeah, that’s a buzz kill. But the good news is that the high I’m on is pretty ridiculous. The weekend was absolutely amazing from start to finish.
As I mentioned on Saturday, we got a tour of Texas on one of Continental’s 757-200 planes, with Vice Presidents and Managers working as flight attendants on the trip, serving up a bit of bubbly and shmoozing with the group. They had a good time, as did all the passengers/customers on the flight. All in all, a phenomenal event.
And then there was the party on Saturday night. An airplane hanger is ridiculously big. But when you move the planes out and bring in a catering crew, some tables and chairs, a live jazz band and set up a couple of stages for entertainment, it gets pretty cozy in a hurry. And last night was just that. When I wasn’t busy making new friends I was hanging out with old ones or enjoying the entertainment. Certainly one of the highlights was when the CEO of the company took the stage to play MC for the final round of a competition giving away 1,000,000 OnePass mile. That was pretty ridiculous, and the competition was actually intense, coming down to the very last question to decide the winner.
Oh, and there was the 737-900ER plane that they had available for us to visit. We pretty much had free reign, which may or may not have been a mistake on their part, but it certainly was fun. Many folks got to take photos in the cockpit, sitting in the engine or even in the overhead bins!
While the Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night parts of the event were all fun and games, there were also some serious bits to the event. The Saturday afternoon sessions gave the 500+ attendees a chance to interact directly with the managers of the various departments in the company. Have a question about the OnePass program, the web site, the in-flight catering or hub operations? They had the people on-site to answer those questions for you. Some of the sessions were better than others, as is always the case, but we certainly learned a few new things that were quite good to know. Some highlights include:
- One little nugget about the Star Alliance move. Continental Gold elites will be Star Gold. This has a significant impact on checked luggage allowances and international lounge access. In the case of the latter it is a significant improvement for gold elites.
An update on the plans to roll out LiveTV and in-flight Internet on the domestic fleet. The system is a bit delayed, but they were supposed to see “power on” of the system over the weekend. They expect it to start in commercial service by March 15 and to have all 220+ of their planes retrofit by mid-2010. The bad news is that the internet part of the service is not going to be coming at the same time. That service is expected to come online much later in the year, and that sucks. I was really looking forward to that. It was also mentioned that the in-flight internet as part of the LiveTV implementation is not necessarily the only option available. The current contract allows CO to put an additional internet service on the planes if they want to. So if something like Row44 or Aircell’s gogo service really takes off then they can always do that too. Oh, and they had a set of the seats on display during Saturday night’s session so we got to see what the system will look like. I am VERY impressed with it, though I still don’t really expect that I’ll spend much time watching TV on flights. 
There is a schedule for the deployment of the new business class seats (and we got to try them out). They are a full lie-flat seat and they are pretty nice. No, they are not perfect if you are 6’ 5”, and getting out over your neighbor from the window seat will remain an acrobatic event, but overall they are a great improvement, I think. I only spent a couple minutes in the seat, but it was comfortable both fully reclined and in the “lounge” mode. And the TV screens they have are just awesome. And they aren’t as good as the Singapore Air suites for getting two people into at the same time, but a couple folks proved that it could be done on the demo set that was set up, though it didn’t look particularly comfortable. As to the deployment schedule, they will start with the 777-200s in September 2009 and the 757-200s in December 2009. Each fleet type is expected to take about 14 months to complete. Yes, that is a long time, but it is better than them not upgrading the offering at all, and considering that even with recent cuts Continental is running their international fleet pretty much at full capacity, it isn’t particularly viable for them to do it any faster. The older 767-400s will start getting the new seats at some point in 2010 (and will likely be getting the AVOD at all seats at the same time) and the 787s will be delivered with the new seats already installed.- Speaking of the 787s, there is a date on the horizon for their delivery: Q2 2011. Yes, it really is that far away. They are running a full two years late from Boeing, which sucks. But then will be now soon enough, I suppose.
- Also on the lounge front, there was some further discussion on the reciprocal relationship between Continental and United that has started to roll out. It seems that we’re stalled a bit for now, but eventually they do expect that the relationship will be fully realized. There are apparently a lot of legal ramifications because of the existing SkyTeam relationship that have to be carefully navigated. In other words, don’t hold your breath on this unless you can survive without breathing until the end of October.
New gate display systems are coming. I had a private head’s up on this one but was sworn to secrecy until Saturday night when the system was finally on display. Continental is beginning the deployment of LCD TV gate display systems similar to the ones that Delta has at their gates. These systems show things like seat maps, in-flight entertainment and meal details and, most importantly to many, upgrade waitlist status. They also show a lot of ads if the demo we saw at the event is to be believed. The information is all the same stuff that has been available for almost a year now for folks with PDAs or other mobile devices that are connected online. And they rolled out the same information on the regular website just a couple months ago. When the gate displays go live I believe that Continental will be unrivaled in terms of transparency and access to the information that they are giving to their customers about the flights.
There were lots of other things that we did and talked about, but those are the biggest ones I can think of off the top of my head.
I want to again offer my public thanks to all the folks at Continental who work so hard at putting together these events. The events are equally as amazing as the folks who plan them. One last picture with me and a couple of the guys who work so hard on this stuff, Kerwin on the left and Scott on the right.
Tags: Boeing, Continental, Dreamliner, frequent flyer, IFE, internet, Lounge, Photos, points, Singapore Air, SkyTeam, United
Posted by Seth on October 20, 2008 under Internet |
Wanna save a ton of weight on your airplane? Perhaps getting rid of some of the hundreds of miles of wires running throughout the plane would be a good place to start. But what about all the things that those wires are used for, like in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems? Make ‘em all wireless.
Apparently Boeing had started working with vendors on a wireless IFE system for the 787 Dreamliner but bailed on it when it became clear that they weren’t going to be able to secure government approvals or sufficient quantities of the wireless chips in time to guarantee that the 787 would come off the line with the IFE functional. In the meantime, however, a company called Bluebox has put together a system that apparently works in the Boeing Business Jets well enough that Airbus wants to see how well it will fly on the A380. A test installation is scheduled for next week in Hamburg at the Airbus A380 demo facility. More on the test can be found here and here.
Apparently Bluebox has secured deals with major Hollywood studios to provide “first run” content on the systems, at least in the BBJ product. That means lots of content available and potentially weight savings from an installation of the product, all good things for both the airlines and the passengers. Of course, it still needs approval for commercial airplane operations and a customer to buy it. The test plans with Airbus suggest that the A350 might be the target for a green-field implementation, but Airbus is mum on that topic for now.
The other fun bit that I came across was an update on wireless in-flight internet connectivity. And I’m not even talking about the decisions by Delta and American to censor their in-flight internet offering. There’s another player in the in-flight broadband market, and they are claiming that they have so many customers that they don’t care about the commercial carriers. ViaSat plays in the satellite connectivity space rather than the terrestrial space, so they can provide global coverage. And they are currently doing so in conjunction with Lufthansa for private planes and maritime customers. It is always good to see more options for such connectivity, assuming they keep the prices reasonable.
Posted by Seth on October 16, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Assuming that Boeing can ever figure out how to end the machinists strike that has shut down their assembly lines for the past 6 weeks, Boeing has another 100 787 Dreamliners to manufacture. American Airlines announced yesterday a firm order for 42 of the 787-900 aircraft and options for another 58, with deliveries expected to run from 2012 to 2020. The planes are expected to help American modernize their fleet and potentially retire some of their older long-haul planes or, should the economy get better, expand their service. These planes are in addition to the 76 new 737-800s that American is going to take delivery of in the next two years as they reduce their MD-80 fleet.
The investment is impressive for a few reasons. The most obvious one is that such actions require a lot of money, and that seems to be a scarcity in the airline industry these days. The other impressive thing about it is that American was able to get delivery slots so quickly. Boeing has been telling new customers that orders wouldn’t be fulfilled until the 2018ish time frame. Apparently they were holding back (a ton) of slots for their better customers and American finally bit.
At the same time, Continental announced today that they are deferring some of their new plane deliveries a year or so. For the big birds (777s and 787s) this may be a strike-related delay. For the smaller planes (16 737s delayed 2+ years) it seems to be more related to their need to reduce capacity on their routes. At the same time, however, they indicated that they are going to be picking up four new 757-300s leftover from ATA’s bankruptcy. With the focus on premium and international traffic it is somewhat surprising to see Continental backing down on the wide-body orders. Then again, they probably have some pretty good reasons, or at least accountants telling them to.
The machinists strike is likely to delay things still from the expected initial delivery dates. But I’m still happy to see that airlines continue to invest in their fleets. That new plane smell is hard to beat.
