{"id":7353,"date":"2020-01-22T17:59:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T23:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=7353"},"modified":"2020-01-22T19:27:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T01:27:57","slug":"boeings-new-ceo-orders-rethink-on-key-jetliner-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/?p=7353","title":{"rendered":"Boeing’s New CEO Orders Rethink on Key Jetliner Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LONDON\/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s new chief executive has sent the aerospace giant back to the drawing board on proposals for a new mid-market aircraft, effectively shelving in their current form plans worth $15 billion-$20 billion that had been overtaken by the 737 MAX crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decision on whether to launch a New Midsize Airplane (NMA) seating 220-270 passengers, which seemed imminent barely a year ago, had already been postponed as Boeing gave all its attention to the grounding of the smaller 737 MAX after two fatal crashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But days after taking the helm with a mandate to lift Boeing out of its 10-month-old reputational crisis, Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said the competitive playing field had changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Since the first clean sheet of paper was taken to it, things have changed a bit … the competitive playing field is a little different,” he told journalists on a conference call on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re going to start with a clean sheet of paper again; I’m looking forward to that,” Calhoun said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also spoke of a fresh approach to the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Boeing spokesman said Calhoun had ordered up a new study on what kind of aircraft was needed. New aircraft typically take 6-7 years or more to bring to market once a decision is made, though Boeing aims to shorten that in part through digital technology and new business models designed around the NMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calhoun “has asked the team to do an assessment of the future market and what kind of airplane is needed to meet the future market,” spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting that the original assessments on the NMA were made about two and a half years ago, he said the new study would “build upon what has been learned … in design and production.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In further evidence of a change of pace, people familiar with the matter said a meeting between Boeing and a major potential supplier, originally scheduled for next week, had been abruptly cancelled with no new date set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That contrasts with the approach just weeks ago when Boeing was still presenting new details of the NMA to some airlines, including a working logo – “theNMA” – and details of an “advanced composite” structure, according to a slide seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NMA had been designed to address a slender gap between single-aisle workhorse jets like the 737 MAX and long-haul wide-body jets like the 787.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most of the effort revolved around a new production system designed not only to support the NMA but to lay the groundwork for the next single-aisle aircraft after the 737 MAX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calhoun said he expected the MAX, whose return to service was delayed again earlier this week, to resume its previous place in the market and remain in service for a generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally toe-to toe-with Europe’s Airbus SE, Boeing has fallen behind in sales for the largest category of single-aisle planes, such as the 200-240-seat Airbus A321neo, which overlaps with the niche being targeted by the NMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By delaying a decision on the NMA, Boeing already risked losing the sweetest part of the market, especially after Airbus seized contracts with two major U.S. airlines, analysts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts have also questioned whether Boeing, facing costs equivalent to a new programme to repair the MAX crisis, as well as delays on its large new 777X jet whose maiden flight is set for Thursday, would have appetite for such a costly project now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Tim Hepher in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boeing Co’s new chief executive has sent the aerospace giant back to the drawing board on proposals for a new mid-market aircraft, effectively <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4510,4813,89,799,5637,5992,2203,4957,5676,1397,868],"tags":[45,560,238,167,47,464,420,502,160,2341,41,2300,1024,10050,82,4173,2430,4215,3932,10049,3755,2907,10046,507,1767,3149,1041,660,5476,2725,9693,589,3504,4320,704,87,4341,46,3526,276,718,412,5301,3119,3247,10048,3234,9307,3665,1288,10047,3303,1093,1691,1658],"class_list":["post-7353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aerospace-news","category-airplane-news","category-aviation-news","category-boeing-news","category-business-news","category-economic-news","category-finance-news","category-global-politics","category-international-news","category-stock-news","category-transportation-news","tag-45","tag-777x","tag-a321","tag-aerospace","tag-airbus","tag-aircraft","tag-airline","tag-airplane","tag-aviation","tag-board","tag-boeing","tag-call","tag-ceo","tag-changed","tag-chicago","tag-competitive","tag-conference","tag-crashes","tag-crisis","tag-dave-calhoun","tag-decision","tag-digital","tag-drawing","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-fatal","tag-field","tag-flight","tag-giant","tag-illinois","tag-imminent","tag-jet","tag-jetliner","tag-key","tag-launch","tag-london","tag-maiden","tag-max","tag-midsize","tag-neo","tag-new","tag-news","tag-nma","tag-orders","tag-plans","tag-postponed","tag-project","tag-proposals","tag-rethink","tag-reuters","tag-shelving","tag-study","tag-technology","tag-transport","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7353"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7358,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353\/revisions\/7358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planesintheair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}