News
Boeing modifies 737, questions CSeries

April 29, 2009, Montreal- Aerospace giant Boeing Co. is raising doubts about the promised operating savings and market acceptance of Bombardier’s new CSeries aircraft as it unveiled changes to its workhorse 737-800 jets.

Company spokeswoman Vicki Ray said Boeing’s own experience suggests the CSeries with its 100 to 149 seats is too small to have more than a limited attractiveness to airlines.
Airlines tend to order the larger version of the 737 to give them more flexibility, she said in an interview.

Ray said Boeing has no plans to introduce a new replacement plane for several years because it believes the technology doesn’t exist to produce the cost-savings that are demanded by customers.

But Bombardier insisted Wednesday that the technology for the CSeries and its Pratt & Whitney engines will produce up to 15 per cent fuel savings over anything offered by Boeing or European rival Airbus.

Spokesman Marc Duchesne said momentum is on Bombardier’s side, since it will be the first to launch an aircraft whose market is expected to be 6,300 planes over 20 years.
Analyst Jacques Kavafian of Research Capital Corp. said Boeing is in denial about the CSeries and its comments about the aircraft are merely an attempt to knock down a competitor by casting doubts about the plane’s performance.

Seattle-based Boeing has already lined up seven carriers, including Continental Airlines to purchase its redesigned 737, beginning in 2010.

It is redesigning the plane’s interior and making it cheaper for airlines to fly.