Air France and KLM today announced their plan to purchase both Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft for its future fleet expansion and renewal. The deal, approved yesterday by Air France KLM Board of Directors, is yet to be finalized by the manufacturers. The order will consist of 50 firm orders and 60 options.

KLM will be taking delivery of the group’s first 787-9 in 2016, while Air France plans to take delivery of its first A350-900 in 2018. Each carrier will operate both of the types  later. Through 2024, the carriers expect to operate 43 Airbus A350-900s and 30 787-9s.

The airlines plan to replace the aircraft with 200-350 seats in fleet at present with the new types. For Air France this would mean the replacement of Airbus A330-200, Airbus A340-300 and Boeing 777-200/ER while for KLM, the Airbus A330-200, Airbus A330-300 and the Boeing 777-200ER will be replaced.

An engine selection for the Boeing 787 was not announced, while the Airbus A350 will be powered by Rolls Royce Trent XWBs, the sole engine type offered for the model. This is the first joint order placed by the merged Air France-KLM group.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Hong Kong Airlines, part of the Hainan Airlines Group, has signed an MoU with Boeing for 38 aircraft, including six 777-2OOLRFs, two 787-8s in VIP configuration and thirty 787-9s.
It is not clear whether Hainan or Hong Kong Airlines will operate the two 787-8s.
Hong Kong Airlines’ long-haul fleet at present consists solely of Airbus aircraft.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Boeing 787 First Delivery Pushed Back to late 2011

Boeing today announced the revised delivery schedule for Boeing 787. The aircraft’s first delivery is now expected in third quarter of 2011. The delay follows the in-flight fire incident on 787 that took place in last November. The aircraft is now over three years delayed signalling probably the longest delay incurred by a Boeing aircraft. And it is a large deviation from Boeing’s last new aircraft program, the Boeing 777, which flew, was delivered and entered service exactly ontime. The delay of nine months was predicted by most analysts as well as Mr. Steven Udavar-Hazy of Air Lease Corp and Mr. Geoffrey Thomas, Senior Editor of ATW magazine.
The aircraft’s initial customer delivery schedule will be revealed at Boeing’s earnings call on Jan 26.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

At one moment it appears as if Boeing was really lucky. True, they have the teething problems of the 787. But an all new aircraft is always better. Which is why they are lucky to have the 787 issues now.
Airbus has just fired the A320neo order run with an MoU for 180 frames from IndiGo. But the real reason behind why Airbus had to stick with a re-engined frame is most likely not the lack of technology that is advanced enough, but the lack of resources due to the yet to be built A350. This is where Boeing is lucky. They have already built the new aircraft, the 787, that they were building. With only one new variant ( as of this writing ) left to be built, the program is not going to be a resource drain that could stop Boeing from building an all new narrowbody aircraft.
If Boeing is to launch an all new narrowbody aircraft, it would most like have a proposed Entry Into Service in the 2019-2020 range. This would provide Boeing with the perfect balance in resource availability and new technology availability.
While someone could argue that Airbus could build an all new narrowbody aircraft later on, when more advanced technology is available, this is not going to do any benefit for the European airframer as Boeing would have already achieved a sizeable chunk of the narrowbody market with its first mover advantage. Not to mention the fact that bringing a new model after a reengined variant will only pull down the A320?s residual values further. This will badly affect less profitable carriers which have been operating the non-reengined A320 – leaving a sizeable price gap between the A320 and the new model thus forcing Airbus to reduce the new model’s selling price. This would be different than what Boeing will experience with 737 and new model values, as the market would be in two different stages. At present, as new next generation models are yet to be unveiled, residual values of old technology models are not badly affected. But at the time A320?s replacement hits the market, the market would be flooded with next generation models thus pushing residual values of older technology models even further down. Hence the 737 will be able to hold up its values better, in return helping Boeing’s own new narrowbody aircraft’s profit margin. None of these would have been possible had Boeing thought technology for 787 is not ready yet and had pushed it late.
So, hasn’t Boeing been lucky with its 787 ?Similar Posts:

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Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Just like AIR guessed on Twitter, Boeing finally resumed Boeing 787 flight testing on Thursday ( 23rd ) ending a six week long hiatus following the onboard electricals bay fire on ZA002 on 9 Nov.
Boeing has installed an interim version of updated power distribution system software, with which the FAA seems to have been satisfied.
The resumption flight, operated by ZA004, had went well and just landed at Seattle as this post goes into publishing.

Photos of the flight

Photos by Liz Matzelle

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Norwegian, the Nordic LCC, has secured two Boeing 787 delivery spots for 2012, the airline announced today.
The airline has entered into a LOI with ILFC for the lease of the two 787-8s for a period of 12 years. The airline is also looking at adding four to six more 787s.
The airline plans to use these aircraft on its flights to Asia and the USA.
CEO Bjørn Kjos has stated the 787′s lower fuel burn and passenger comfort as key reasons for selecting it over the Airbus A350.
The airline does not rule out the possibility of launching its long haul flights in 2011 with aircraft leased for a short period. The airline has stated that it plans to have a fleet of 15 long haul aircraft within a few years.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Delta Airlines has pushed back its Boeing 787 deliveries to the next decade, it was revealed in a SEC filing.
The airline, which inherited the 787 order from the merger with Northwest Airlines, was originally due to take delivery of the aircraft between 2008-2010 – which had since been pushed back due to the two and a half years delay in the program. The airline will now be taking delivery of the 18 aircraft from 2020 onwards, at a rate of six per year.
Some sources close to the program state that Delta owes about $60 million in penalties from Boeing, and the deferral means they will never take delivery of these frames – but are rather keeping the order without hurting Boeing’s order book.
Some other sources state that this is an opportunity for Delta to switch to the GEnx engine, which now has a better fuel burn than the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 which were originally ordered by Northwest. The same sources state that DL may instead convert these orders to a newer 787 variant or be one of the first to sign up for the 777NG.
It is also believed that the new United CEO Jeff Smisek recently met with Boeing to try get some 2012 positions for the 787s it has on order.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

The Boeing Company today officially announced that it now expects the delivery of the first 787 only in middle of first quarter, 2011.
The delivery date revision is followed by an assessment of a Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine needed for the final phases of flight testing.
The Trent 1000 engine prototype at Rolls Royce’ facilities recently incurred an uncontained failure.
GE’s engine offering for the 787, the GEnx is not affected. However, a majority of customers have ordered the Trent 1000 for the 787 thus the latter featuring a larger part of the flight testing.
The delay was met with angry reactions by some customers, such as Kenya Airways, who threatened to cancel their 787 orders.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Dreamliner Seven, JA805A, is being prepared for the side of body modifications.

The first ANA 787, JA805A, will be moved to the ATS Hangar 3 tonight at 7.30pm PST.

Photo and info courtesy of Matt Cawby of Skyline Photography.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

The second Boeing 787 test aircraft, ZA002 ( N787EX ) took to the skies yesterday, from Paine Field, Everett, Washington.

Here are some photos from her first flight.

Photo by Gordon Werner

Photo by Gordon Werner

Photo by Gordon Werner

[ Yes, it had landed with the landing gear doors open - not stowed ]

Photo by

Photo by

Photo by sabian404

Many had questioned about the open landing gear doors – on which FlightBlogger has got a nice explanation !

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review