Published November 2000

Boeing sets new high
for cargo plane construction

By Bryan Corliss
Herald Economy Writer

For the first time, Boeing will build and deliver more 747 air cargo carriers this year than it will passenger planes, a spokesman said recently.

“The market’s pretty darn good,” said Gary Lesser, spokesman for the Boeing 747 program in Everett. “We’re going to be building these planes for a good long time.”

Boeing will deliver 15 of its 747-400F freighters to customers this year, all of them assembled at the Everett plant, while building only 10 of the company’s 747 passenger planes.

The previous one-year high for cargo plane construction was 10, built and delivered in 1999.

The planes are among the most expensive Boeing builds, with a list price between $177 million and $195 million. That’s about $2.5 million more than a passenger-carrying 747-400. Cargo planes cost more because they have to be sturdier to carry the heavier loads, Lesser said.

Boeing also offers a smaller 767-300 freighter.

Demand for the planes has grown steadily in recent years, spurred by the growth in overnight shipping of retail products and just-in-time deliveries of key parts to manufacturers, said Bob Saling, a Renton-based spokesman for Boeing’s air cargo business.

Almost all the cargo planes now flying were built by Boeing, Saling said. Most are former passenger jets that were converted to cargo use as they grew older.

But Boeing also is hammering Airbus Industrie in the new cargo plane business, Saling said. Airbus only offers one true freight-carrying plane, its A300, and it hasn’t sold any of those in the past two years, he said.

Polar Air Cargo of Long Beach, Calif., will take delivery of its first 747-400F next month, the first of five it will buy over the next three years.

The planes are the largest cargo carriers available; they have extended range capability; and they are more efficient to operate, “besides the fact that Boeing is apple pie and America,” Polar spokeswoman Kristine Leathers said.

Apple pie aside, most customers for the 747-400F are Asian airlines, Lesser said. China Air has ordered 13, of which two have been delivered.

Cargo also is playing a big role in Boeing’s discussions about its proposed 747X family of planes. All three of the proposed new planes could be developed in freight versions.

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