Boeing firms up orders for 43 787s from ALC and GECAS

 By BA Staff

Boeing and Air Lease Corporation (ALC) announced today that they have completed an order for 30 787-10 and three 787-9 Dreamliners. The order, valued at $9.4 billion at list prices, fulfills the commitment originally announced during the 2013 Paris Air Show in June.

ALC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy had this to say about the partnership:

"We are thrilled to be adding 787-10s and additional 787-9s to our portfolio. The performance characteristics of the 787-10 will build on the 787 family's success in the marketplace by providing the ideal size, capabilities and economical operating costs for medium to long-haul markets."

Furthermore, Boeing and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric, announced today that they have completed an order for 10 787-10 Dreamliners. The order, valued at $2.9 billion at list prices, completes the commitment originally announced during the 2013 Paris Air Show in June and builds momentum in the airplane leasing market for the 787-10.

GECAS President and CEO Norman C.T. Liu said:

"These airplanes are an excellent addition to our broad portfolio of modern, fuel-efficient aircraft. This order enables us to offer our airline customers an airplane with the lowest operating costs."

The new 787-10, launched in June 2013, will extend and complement the family, carrying 300 to 330 passengers up to 7,000 nautical miles (12,964 km) and accommodating more than 90 percent of the world's twin-aisle routes. The 787-10 also will be 25 percent more fuel-efficient than airplanes of its size today and more than 10 percent better than anything being offered by the competition for the future.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner described his point of view on the matter:

"As a leader in the leasing industry, GECAS's 787-10 order is a strong statement about the capabilities of this highly efficient airplane. The 787-10 will provide GECAS customers the efficiencies and passenger comforts needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace."

The 787-10 will feature the 787 family's unique interior. The interior technologies make the passenger experience more enjoyable, including large, dimmable windows; cleaner air; higher humidity; lower cabin altitude; bigger stowage bins; soothing LED lighting and a smoother ride. To date, the 787-10 has accumulated 102 orders and commitments from five customers worldwide.

These 787-10s bring the total number of airplanes GECAS has ordered from Boeing to 598 since 1995, including 737s, 747s, 757s, 767s, 777s and 787s. To date, GECAS has taken delivery of 451 Boeing airplanes.

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Boeing launches 787-10 Dreamliner. An Airbus A330-300 replacement?

by Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara

At the Paris Air Show, as expected, US airframer Boeing has launched the 787-10 Dreamliner, the third member of the 787 family. The second member of the family, the 787-9, is in final assembly in Everett, Washington, USA, and is set to make its first flight later this year.

Video and analysis at the end of the article.

Final assembly and flight testing of the 787-10 are expected to begin in 2017 with the first delivery targeted for 2018.

The 787-9 will seat between 250~290 passengers depending on the airline's configuration choices, with a range of 8,500 nautical miles (15,750 km), and a MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight) of 250,830 kgs (553,000 lbs). The 787-10 has the same MTOW as its shorter variant the 787-9, and will trade range for increased passenger capacity. The 787-10 has a range up to 7,000 nm (12,964 km), with seating for 300~330 which puts it head-on against the Airbus A350-900 XWB which underwent its first flight just last week.

Boeing is banking on the lighter weight of the 787-10 off-setting the range limitations in winning orders. The 787-10 would be used on high demand routes of up to 10 hours making it ideal for trans-Atlantic flights and long regional flights. India to Europe, Middle-East to Europe, Far East, and South-East Asia to Australasia, Northern Asia, etc.

This performance envelope gives good insight to the launch customers for the aircraft and the 102 airplane commitments received by Boeing. Air Lease Corporation (ALC), with 30 airplanes; GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), with 10; International Airlines Group / British Airways, with 12 subject to shareholder approval; Singapore Airlines, with 30 and United Airlines, with 20 airplanes.

Boeing 787-10 launch video

Boeing 787-10 will compete with the Airbus A330-300

We expect the Boeing 787-10 to serve as Boeing's answer to the wildly successful Airbus A330-300.

The A330-300 initially competed with the Boeing 777-200A (the non-ER variant), but over the past decade, beat the first 777 variant outright.

Cathay Pacific group is the largest operator of the A330-300

For almost every mission under 5,000 nautical miles, the A330-300 carries more payload at a lower seat-mile cost than any other airframe of its size on the market. Thus, for any airline who didn't need the range of the 777-200ER, the A330-300 became the aircraft of choice, and at 613 orders and 424 deliveries for this variant alone, one can see it is a huge market. The delays with the 787 program only benefitted the A333 program more, and Airbus won hundreds of orders in the last three years and still possesses a backlog of 187 frames.

The A333 has been especially popular with Asian carriers looking to use it for regional routes within Asia, like Singapore Airlines retiring its fleet of 777-200s in favour of A330-300s, and for carriers with large trans-Atlantic operations. The world's largest A333 operator is the Cathay Pacific / DragonAir group, which also uses the large belly space of the aircraft for cargo.

The 787-10 will give Boeing the upper hand in this market segment, and we estimate with potential sales of 700 aircraft long term.

The 787-10 can lift a higher payload than the Airbus A330-300, and has a maximum take-off weight of 250,830 kg versus 240,000 for the A330-300. The 787-10 will also have 600 more nautical miles of range than the A330-300, and 1,047 cubic feet of additional cargo space (18.9%), making it especially attractive to Asian carriers for whom strong cargo demand on regional routes is a big driver behind using wide-body aircraft for such flights.

From an operating cost perspective, the 787-10 is a new generation aircraft with updated technology. High composite light weight body, new wing shape, and bleedless and high bypass enginers. It could offer up to 20% savings on operating costs compared to the A330-300, and for an industry that loves even a 2% reduction, this would be huge.

We can also expect most operators to further reduce seat-mile costs by opting for the bone crunching nine-abreast narrow (17.2") seating, which can be justified on the shorter flights that will be operated by the 78J (time-table designation for the 787-10), in comparison, the eight abreast seating on the A330-300 offers 18" seat widths. (AirAsia X uses a nine abreast 16.5" seating on its Airbus A330s and A340s).

Airbus will naturally try to narrow this gap by offering better discounts on the A330, but the largest A330-300 operators like Cathay Pacific/DragonAir, China Airlines, Thai Airways, Delta, and Lufthansa can expect strong sales pitches from Boeing very soon.

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Farnborough Orders on Day One

Courtesy of Aspire Aviation, the following table provides a breakdown of announced orders on Day 1 of the Farnborough Air Show.

Airbus

Date	Customer	Quantity	Model	Remarks
9th July	Arkia Israel Airlines	4	A321neo	Agreement

Boeing

Date	Customer	Quantity	Model	Remarks
9th July	Air Lease Corp (ALC)	60	737 MAX 8	Reconfirmation rights for 25 more
9th July	Air Lease Corp (ALC)	15	737 MAX 9

Pratt & Whitney

Date	Customer	Quantity	Model	Remarks
9th July	IndiGo	300	PW1100G-JM
9th July	CIT	60	PW1100G-JM
9th July	Cebu Pacific	60	PW1100G-JM	For 30 firm A321neos
9th July	Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS)	100	PW1100G-JM	MoU

CFM

Date	Customer	Quantity	Model	Remarks
9th July	Air Lease Corp (ALC)	150	CFM Leap-1B

Embraer

Date	Customer	Quantity	Model	Remarks
9th July	Hebei Airlines	5	E-190s	Booked in Q2 backlog

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