Lots of news has come out over the last few days regarding Boeing. Here’s a roundup of some of the big headlines.
Airbus extends air show order lead over Boeing
Airbus has now racked up $11.5 billion in orders and agreements this week, well ahead of Boeing, which notched up its first air show order on Wednesday — a $153 million deal with Japan’s MC Aviation Partners for only two jets.
Boeing shrugged off the Airbus announcements, saying the company doesn’t save up orders to announce at air shows.
Emotionless Boeing considering labor stability for 2nd 787 line
Chicago-based The Boeing Co. says that when it decides where to put a second 787 line, it will do so without emotion and will take labor stability into account.
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Boeing’s vice president of airplane programs, Pat Shanahan, said that the decision on where to put a second 787 assembly line will not take a long time.
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“There are opportunities that we need to assess and I’ve worked there for 24 years, I like the people in Seattle, I grew up in Seattle, It’s a great community, but when you have the customer telling you you’re making it really hard to choose your product because when we buy it you can’t give it to us,” said Shanahan.
Qatar Airways CEO blasts Boeing, may cancel orders for 787
“The writing is in the wall for Boeing, and they don’t care,” Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker told Dow Jones at the Paris Air Show. “They’re too busy having lunches and dinners.”
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“Boeing doesn’t realize how much they’re hurting their customers’ plans,” he said. “They’re very much mistaken if they think we’re going to give them much more time on the issue.”
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“Unfortunately, Boeing is not run by commercial people,” Al Baker told a group of journalists here yesterday afternoon. “Boeing is run by bean counters and lawyers. We have some serious issues with them, and if they do not play ball with us, they will be in for a serious surprise.”
Managing the drones: Boeing forms unmanned aircraft division
Boeing is forming a Seattle-based division to focus its efforts to win contracts to supply unmanned aircraft.
Boeing has a broad portfolio of unmanned systems, but has yet to win a major contract from the Pentagon. Boeing’s unmanned aircraft include the ScanEagle, Integrator, Phantom Ray, Hummingbird A160 and HALE.
Boeing still directly employs 73,760 people around the Puget Sound—roughly 40% more than Microsoft and Amazon combined. I certainly hope that Boeing doesn’t decide to begin migrating the majority of its operations elsewhere, and I’m not in a position to judge whether talk from large airlines about switching to Airbus is just corporate posturing, but you can bet that if either of those things do happen, the local economy (and by extension, the housing market) will feel it.