Tag Archives for boeing.
United Airlines and Boeing are planning a big announcement today at the airframe manufacturer’s facility in South Carolina. They’ve been expected to announce a huge order for Boeing 787s, which should be line-fit with a new Polaris business class suites with doors.
Ahead of the announcement details of the order have already been released. The Boeing 787 details are correct but they’re ordering MAX aircraft, too.
If Delta is buying new Boeing aircraft, it necessarily means they’ve gotten a nearly unprecedented deal on the planes. With Boeing losing numerous orders as a result of delays and groundings, compounded by Russian sanctions and China’s state-controlled carriers going with Airbus narrowbodies, they’re desperate to put better numbers up on the board.
Meanwhile adding these planes to their order book will likely mean making cancellation of the program even less likely and far more costly, so Boeing’s threats to legislators and regulators – already reminiscent of Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles – ring even more hollow.
Newly certified aircraft have to have upgraded alert systems for pilots. Issues with the Boeing 737 MAX MAX that led to the Lion Air and Ethiopian crashes are, in part, addressed by mandatory new alerts for pilots that will apply to all newly-certified aircraft types. But unless the FAA agrees to exempt the Boeing 737 MAX 10 from this requirement, which they can only do by the end of 2022, Boeing’s CEO says they’ll walk away from the plane project and all of the orders it represents.
American Airlines is suspending or delaying Seattle – London and Bangalore, Dallas _ Santiago and Tel Aviv, Miami – Sao Paulo, and Los Angeles – Sydney. They’re blaming delays in the delivery of Boeing 787-8s for this, a result of production and regulatory issues faced by the airframe manufacturer.
They’ll get compensation from Boeing – covering money they’d have made with these planes, and they don’t even need to fly! – but the truth is that the lack of available aircraft is at least as much American’s fault, maybe more so than Boeing’s.
Ellen Church was a pilot and a nurse. She sought a pilot job with United Airlines (then Boeing Air Transport) but got nowhere. Then she suggested the airline hire traveling nurses, helping to ease the fear of flying people had so early on in aviation.
She was hired in 1930 as head stewardess and she then hired seven other women on a three month trial basis. They formed the ‘original eight’ of what would become flight attendants.
OAG data shows that something interesting happened over the last decade. Boeing began dominant, with the 737 outpacing Airbus A320 aircraft in scheduled flights and time in the air – and several Boeing planes cracking the top 10.
At the end of the decade the A320 family was ahead of the 737, and both the Boeing 757 and MD80 had dropped out of the race for dominance in scheduled flights. The Boeing 777 became more popular, and 787s spend more time in the air than Airbus A350s. However the 767 is slowly fading from the scene.
Former conservative fourth circuit federal appeals court judge Michael Luttig, who resigned from the bench in 2006 to become Boeing’s general counsel, is being retired effective the end of the year.
Boeing CEO Dennis Mullenburg, who had been stripped of the company’s Chairmanship in October, was fired and will be replaced as follows.
The FAA has been trying to get other countries on board with re-certifying the Boeing 737 MAX. Some industry leaders, such as American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, are so confident and ready to see the plane back in the skies that they attribute delay to political gamesmanship.
However one new wrinkle has been uncovered in Boeing’s quest to have the aircraft re-certified.
Delta’s CEO seemingly told employees that their 767s would get new suites in business class with doors. Unfortunately this is not what’s happening. There’s going to be a new seat, better than the current 767 seat, but uncompetitive compared to what other airlines will be flying on some similar routes.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
