MAGAZINE 10 | (^55)
BOEING
737 MAX
The European giant International
Airlines Group (IAG), who controls
British Airways and Iberia, has sig-
ned a letter of intent for up to 200
aircrafts of the 737 MAX families.
The agreement, if formalized, is
evaluated in over US$ 24 billion.
777X
It was expected that the 777-9
would fly before the opening of
the Paris Air Show, but an engine
problem found during ground
tests has delayed the date of the
first flight. On the other hand, the
current 777 family is still getting
new agreements. Qatar has signed
a contract for five 777F more and
China Airlines intents to add six
cargo aircrafts to its fleet.
787
The Dreamliner has become the
focus of good news of Boeing, by
getting a series of new contracts
along the year, especially for the
contract for 30 aircrafts formalized
by Korean Air.
NMA
Contrarily to expectations, Boeing
has not publicized any progress of
the New Midsize Airplane (NMA)
program, which considers the
development of an aircraft family
to substitute the 757 and 767. Like
its antecessors, the NMA should
have a two-aisle model and other
single-corridor one. It is expected
that the first model to be launched
would be the wide body one, thus
substituting the veteran 767. Howe-
ver, the market believes that the
launch of the A321XRL and the
problems in the 737 MAX, could
force Boeing to review its plans
and to launch the substitute of the
737 family. The new aircraft may
be the so much expected 797.
7107?
One of the curiosities of the
sector is about the designation
of Boeing aircrafts after the 797.
Company sources do not discard
sequence continuity, with a futu-
re 7107, 7117. The 7X7 series was
created in the 1950s by Boeing as
its mark in the commercial avia-
tion and nothing indicates plans
to change the sequence; however,
depending on the market reac-
tion, a radical change may be
seen in the next launches.
chris devlin
(Chris Devlin)
#1