European Aircraft Manufacture: Airbus and Boeing Compete to Win American Airlines Plane Order

European aircraft builder Airbus aims to win a large plane order from AMR Corp’s American Airlines by offering $6 billion in preferential financing to woo the American carrier away from rival Boeing , according to the Wall Street Journal.

Airbus wants to break Boeing’s monopoly at American Airlines and has assembled a team of lenders and leasing firms to help the European company win the deal, people familiar with the proposal told the newspaper.

Airbus’s offer has a catalog value of almost $23 billion, but that is being heavily discounted, the people told the paper.

The European plane maker is offering American, a unit of AMR Corp , 130 of the current-generation A320s and 130 of the more fuel-efficient A320neo, the new engine option slated to enter service in 2015, the newspaper said.

American Airlines, which currently operates an all Boeing fleet, might make a decision about its airplane order as soon as next Wednesday, the people familiar with the matter said.

Meanwhile, Boeing is offering 737-800s and 737-900 Extended Range planes, people familiar with the matter said. However, the price and financing terms were unclear, the paper said.

Boeing is also racing to develop a product strategy for its best-selling 737 model to compete with redesigns of the A320.

“Boeing does not discuss our ongoing talks or sales campaigns with our airline customers,” Boeing spokesman Jim Condelles told Reuters.

Official at American Airlines and Airbus could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

Southwest Airlines Orders 20 Planes Boeing 737-800s Prepare Reach Fly to Hawaii

Southwest Airlines has contracted for 20 jets that will be equipped to fly to Hawaii, though the first delivery is more than a year away.

The Dallas-based discount carrier, placing a firm order for 20 Boeing 737-800s, has specified it wants the jets equipped for long flights over water, a move that industry watchers see as a sign Southwest is at last ready to fly to the islands.

“We are looking to the future,” CEO Gary Kelly said this week in a speech to the Wings Club in New York. “The 800 sets the stage to bring more destinations into the realm of possibilities.”

The move is a new direction for an airline that currently has neither the equipment nor the authority to fly to Hawaii. The first of the jets is scheduled to be delivered in March 2012.

“The current plan is to deliver these 20, 737-800 aircraft in full Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards configuration,” Southwest said in a news release.

ETOPS authority is the Federal Aviation Administration’s special rules and special certification for long flights over water with twin-engine jets, requiring more stringent schedules for inspection, more frequent changeout of aircraft parts, and extra training for pilots. Qualifying requires, among other things, extensive flying of a jet over open ocean with one of the engines turned off.

“All signs point to Southwest using the 800 to fly to Hawaii,” said Carl Unger of SmarterTravel.com.

The Dallas News reported Thursday that Southwest had posted a job for an ETOPS program manager. “You can’t fly to Hawaii if you don’t have ETOPS certification, and you can’t have ETOPS certification without the right people,” said reporter Terry Maxon.

Kelly, in his New York speech, mentioned several other possible destinations, but none other than Hawaii that justified the costly ETOPS certification.

Southwest, while smaller than the big three airlines in revenue passenger miles, actually carries more individual passengers than any other U.S. carrier. Its discount pricing model has been based in large measure on low training and maintenance costs by flying only one kind of aircraft.

Without its own service to Hawaii, Southwest sold code share tickets on ATA Airlines until ATA’s demise in 2008, three days after the shutdown of Aloha Airlines.

Southwest could provide stiff competition to Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines, and aviation Web boards this week were rife with speculation that Alaska might make an offer for Hawaiian, but neither airline confirmed even that discussions were held, and both have successfully grown organically in the past year, that is, by adding service rather than through mergers and acquisitions.

Passenger Airplane Industry : Boeing Sells 60 Next-Generation 737-800s

The next-generation Boeing 737-800 appears to be world’s best-selling passenger airplane.

Boeing and the new leasing company Air Lease Corporation (ALC) have finalized an order for up to 60 Next-Generation 737-800s.

This order, first announced at the Farnborough Airshow in July, is for deliveries through 2017. In addition to 54 firm orders the deal includes six additional airplanes to be reconfirmed.

“Our management team has been working closely with Boeing for more than 30 years,” said Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, chairman and CEO of Air Lease Corporation.

“This order for Next-Generation 737-800s continues that great tradition. With this large and long-term commitment we’ll be able to offer our clients a most economical, fuel-efficient and versatile airplane, suitable for a variety of profitable missions.”

“The Next-Generation 737 is one of the world’s best-selling airplanes for a number of very good reasons,” claims Jim Albaugh, president and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

“Airlines and lessors remain confident in the airplane’s ability to deliver outstanding, dependable operational and financial performance across the widest range of missions. We look forward to providing that continued value to Air Lease Corporation and its clients and to a long and successful continued partnership with Steven Udvar-Hazy and his new leasing company.”

Southwest Airlines Looking at Flying Larger Planes

The low-cost carrier confirmed Friday that it is kicking the tires of Boeing Co.’s 737-800 planes, which are larger and can carry more passengers than the series -700, -500 and -300 Boeing 737s that Southwest currently flies.

More seats on each plane would give Southwest flexibility to have fewer daily flights out of cities where slot controls limit the airline’s ability to add more individual flights, such as New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Bigger planes also would lower the carrier’s cost per seat flown on long-haul flights where profits are thin.

“Since the decision to add the -800 has not been finalized, any details regarding configuration, timing and quantity of deliveries are still to be determined,” Mike VanDeVen, Southwest’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, wrote on the carrier’s blog Friday.

Southwest’s -700 and -300 series planes seat 137 in its all-coach configuration. Boeing says the -800 series would seat up to 189 passengers in a single-class configuration, but the model would hold 175 passengers the way Southwest would configure it.

While Boeing seems willing to let Southwest substitute the bigger models for current orders of -700 series planes, Southwest will need to reach agreements with its pilots’ and flight attendants’ unions before making the order.

A spokesman for the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said the union’s current contract lets the parties reopen it to discuss rates of pay for flying new types of aircraft. The Transport Workers Union, which represents flight attendants, plans to start immediate negotiations, president Thom McDaniel said in a message to members Friday.

The carrier said it needs to have its new labor deals in place and decide to buy the planes by Dec. 1 in order to take delivery of the planes in 2012. If it can’t meet that deadline, it wouldn’t rule out a purchase with later deliveries, said spokeswoman Katie Coldwell.

“Response from our employees has been very positive” regarding the prospect of flying larger planes, she said.

A bigger plane might take longer to load and unload than Southwest’s current fleet, but schedule planners have built more flexibility into the airline’s schedule to allow for longer “turn times” – the time it takes to get a plane in and out of a gate.

The list price for the bigger plane ranges from $72.5 million to $81 million, Boeing’s website says. That compares to the range of $58.5 million to $69.5 million for the -700 model. Southwest, which buys all its planes from Boeing, receives significant discounts from those list prices.

Boeing Get Order 92 Aircraft at Farnborough Airshow

Boeing took the wraps off 92 more airliner orders Wednesday at the Farnborough Airshow in the United Kingdom as both domestic and foreign airlines and leasing companies continued their quest for new, efficient capacity.

Boeing, which builds its airliners in Everett and Renton, got orders from American Airlines for 35 more 737-800s to replace its aging fleet mainstay, the MD-80.

By the end of 2012, American will have 195 737-800s in its fleet. The next-generation 737, built in Renton, is 35 percent more fuel efficient than the MD-80.
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Airlines Incident: Delta Airlines B738 at Seattle on Jan 10th 2009, Engine Failure

The crew of a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-800, flight DL1249 from Seattle,WA to Cincinnati,KY (US), declared emergency and returned to Seattle Airport after one engine failed while the airplane climbed through 11000 feet. The landing on runway 16L 24 minutes after takeoff was safe. Read more

Continental Airlines Flight Demonstrates Sustainable Use of Biofuels

Continental Airlines has announced that it is demonstrating the use of sustainable biofuel to power a commercial aircraft for the first time in North America.
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