Published April 2003

Boeing resumes development of new
long-range jet

By Bryan Corliss
Herald Business Writer

The Boeing Co. has resumed development of the farthest-flying commercial jet ever, after a delay of almost 18 months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Starting now will allow Boeing to get the 777-200LR to launch customer Pakistan International Airlines by January 2006, Lars Andersen, manager of Boeing’s longer-range 777 program, said in March.

In spite of the Iraqi war and rumors of more U.S. airline bankruptcy filings, Boeing “felt this was the correct time to restart the program,” Andersen said. “Our customers wanted the airplane in 2006. We really need to begin at this point.”

Boeing has firm orders for only five of the jets, from Pakistan International Airlines and EVA Air of Taiwan. Andersen said the company is discussing deals with other potential customers, but wouldn’t name them.

But in spite of the small number of orders, the announcement is good news for Boeing, said analyst Richard Aboulafia with the Teal Group in Virginia.

“I’m happy to see a commitment to commercial products, even niche commercial products,” he said. “It’s signs of life, and that’s a good thing.”

Boeing expects to sell about 500 of its longer-range 777s, the 200LR and 300ER models, Andersen said.

Aboulafia said he expects major Asia-Pacific airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qantas to be potential customers.

Airlines in that region are recovering, and Boeing needs to do something to compete with the new Airbus A340-500, the analyst said.

As conceived, the 777-200LR would carry up to 300 passengers as far as 10,500 miles, which is about 575 miles farther than Airbus’ competing A340-400, Andersen said. That would allow direct nonstop flights from Los Angeles to all of Europe and Asia, most of Oceania, and a large portion of northern Africa.

Boeing engineers had completed 10 percent of the design work when the program was shut down in October 2001 amid the upheaval and confusion in the airline industry following the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We thought it was prudent to stop the development for some period of time, so we could see more clearly where the marketplace will be going,” he said.

The plane shares a high percentage of common features with the larger 777-300ER, which Boeing recently rolled out of the Everett factory, Andersen said. Only 25 percent to 30 percent of the plane will be new, and both planes are being powered by General Electric’s new GE90-115B engines, the most powerful ever put on a commercial jetliner.

Boeing has completed the initial phase of flight testing on the 300ER, which took its first flight in February. The plane has been certified for structural soundness, which means that Boeing can start carrying more flight-test engineers aloft, Andersen said.

In other Boeing-related news:

• The company said it will contract out less complex work now handled in-house and plans to cut 400 jobs from its Auburn manufacturing site by the end of 2004. The cuts were denounced by labor leaders, who have seen Boeing’s work force slashed by more than 30,000 people since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
• The company announced it will be part of a consortium that plans to build a new family of Russian regional jets. Members of Boeing’s Everett-based product development team could be involved in the project, along with other engineers based around Puget Sound and at the company’s Moscow design center, a Boeing spokeswoman said.

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