News Items…CSA emergency landing/Boeing 737-900 is still growing/SAA plans to splash out on Airbus

OK657, a Boeing 737 en route from London Stansted to Prague was forced to make an emergency landing at Ruzyne Airport last night at 2235 after the crew reported a problem with the landing gear. The aircraft circled over Prague for an hour before making a safe landing. It turned out to be an instrument indication problem.
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Despite the ongoing industry downturn, The Boeing Co. is getting closer to a possible launch this year of a new version of the 737-900 that would be able to carry more than 200 passengers and help Boeing better compete against Airbus, especially with tour operators in Europe.

Boeing is talking with several potential launch customers in Europe and Asia about the new model, known for now as the 737-900X.

“This plane will bring us into direct competition with the Airbus A321,” said Kenneth Hiebert, regional director of product marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “It will give us head-to-head competition.”

The A321 is the biggest member of the Airbus A320 family, which also includes the A319 and the smaller A318 now in development.

Boeing’s next-generation 737 family and the Airbus A320 family have been the best sellers in recent years of commercial jetliners with more than 100 seats, and competition between the two manufacturers has been brutal.

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The A321 can carry more passengers than Boeing’s biggest plane in this class, the 737-900. This has given Airbus an advantage with European tour operators, which typically haul passengers in one class to get the most seats on a plane.

“We are talking to customers who are very interested in the plane,” Hiebert said of the 737-900X. “They are excited about it. We are in active discussions with them. I can’t say if something is imminent or not. But our hope is sooner rather than later.”

Boeing’s marketing and sales people have been talking to airlines for several years about a version of the 737-900 that would be able to carry more passengers but have the range of the smaller 737-800.

“We are hearing from them that they are getting closer” to wanting the plane, said Elizabeth Lund, deputy chief project engineer for the 737 program

The 737-900X is essentially the same plane as the 737-900, of which 50 have been ordered and 29 delivered to customers Alaska, Continental, Korean Air and KLM.

But several design changes are planned for the new plane to boost its range and capacity.

Of those, the most significant are two emergency exit doors just behind the wings.

Under U.S. and foreign aircraft certification rules, the seating capacity of a commercial jetliner is determined by the number of exits and passenger doors and how quickly people can get out of the plane in an emergency.

The basic 737-900 has a fuselage that is 8.5 feet longer than the 737-800, but they share the same wing, engines and maximum take-off weight.

Although the 737-900 is bigger than the 737-800, it has the same number of passenger doors and exit hatches. Thus both planes are restricted by regulation to no more than 189 passengers, even though the 737-900 could carry more.

By adding two emergency exits, the 737-900 would be certified to carry up to 220 passengers, though airlines would probably configure the cabin for no more than 214 passengers in a single class or about 204 passengers in two classes, according to Boeing.

An airline option would be an auxiliary fuel tank that would boost the plane’s range by about 320 nautical miles, out to a maximum range of about 3,100 nautical miles. That would give the 737-900X the same range as the popular 737-800.

“It makes this a really competitive airplane in terms of operating costs,” Lund said.

Tweaking the current flap system also will provide better performance, she said.

Another innovation for the 737-900X is a redesigned aft pressure bulkhead. On passenger jets, this is the bulkhead at the rear of the plane that separates the pressurized part of the cabin from the unpressurized tail. For strength, this bulkhead is usually designed in the shape of an egg.

By using new and stronger materials, Boeing has come up with a flat pressure bulkhead for the 737-900X. This allows more room in the rear of the cabin for galley cart storage. Even a couple more seats might be possible if the rear galley were pushed back a little.

Lund said the flat aft pressure bulkhead could eventually become standard on all next generation 737 models, not just the 737-900X.

“It’s a new option that we are very excited about,” Lund said.

Another engineering innovation for the 737-900X is a two-position tail skid. The skid prevents damage to the plane should the tail hit the ground. Having a “smart” tail skid that can change positions on the plane can improve take off operations, for example.

The maximum take off weight of the 737-900X would be about 10,000 pounds more than the 737 — 900.

For now, Boeing appears to be targeting the 737-900X primarily at countering the A321 in the European charter or tour market, although it is also believed to be talking with Qantas of Australia and some other airlines about the plane.

The Airbus plane has become popular with the tour operators because it can accommodate up to 220 passengers in a high-density configuration.

“The A321 has done well in the European market place,” acknowledged Hiebert.

But he described the plane as a “pig” because of its weight and slow climbing capability. The next generation 737 performs better, he said.

Boeing’s single-aisle 757-200 and 757-300 are used by European tour operators. Boeing launched development in the mid 1990s of the bigger 757-300 with an order for a dozen planes by Condor, the German tour operator.

But sales of the 757 have dried up.

“This plane (the 737-900X) will help us,” Lund said. “We have the 757 but we are not as competitive as we need to be in this market.”

Hiebert said the 737-900X would help the European tour operators expand their operations, flying passengers deeper into the Middle East direct from Europe and also into Northern Africa.

European tour operators are being pressured by the low-fare carriers. Ryanair, easyJet and others are expanding rapidly through Europe, using 737s.

The low-fare carriers in Europe would also be potential customers for the 737-900X, Hiebert said

“It’s the backpackers in many cases that fill those seats,” he said. “The more seats, the lower the operating costs, lower seat-mile costs and more revenue. This plane could do well with the low-fare carriers that are packing them in.”

It would take about 30 months from launch to delivery of the first planes to customers, Lund said.

By then, the current industry slump should be improved, with more airlines ready and financially able to add new planes to their fleets.

The U.S. airline industry is expected to take longer to recover, but Boeing believes the 737-900X could eventually fit into the fleets of carriers such as Continental on routes to sun destinations in South America.

Continental was one of the launch customers for the 737-900.

Even Southwest, the world’s largest 737 operator with nearly 400 planes, could be a potential future customer of the 737-900X, Hiebert said.

“They have used 737s in some cool ways,” he said. “We are talking to them.”

Although U.S. airlines are more interested in staying alive these days than thinking about what new airplane they might eventually buy, Boeing is still knocking on doors to talk.
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South African Airways will almost certainly acquire up to four of the yet-to-fly Airbus mega-jets – the 550-seater A380.

The airline’s hand is being forced through a lack of landing slots at Heathrow Airport in London and the fact that its fleet of eight long-haul, high-volume Boeing 747-400s is becoming increasingly expensive to operate.

The US Federal Aviation Administration recently placed a restriction on the amount of fuel that can be used in the B747-400’s centre-line tank, the mainstay of SAA’s long-haul services, for safety reasons. This has affected the range of its 747-operated direct flights between Johannesburg and Atlanta. The aircraft will n ow either have to land in Ilha do Sal to refuel or leave Atlanta with a reduced payload – SAA’ s preference.

Chief executive André Viljoen said this week that the airline had to seriously consider acquiring the A380 – which has a listed price tag of some $250-million but a range of almost 15 000km.

“I see the A380 as a replacement for our eight 747-400s which, based on growth in traffic patterns, will be too small for our needs in five years.”

Viljoen said the lack of arrival slots at Heathrow prevented the airline from scheduling more flights – “so our only option is to acquire bigger aircraft to move more passengers if we are to meet the burgeoning demand”.

He said SAA had asked Airbus to study the performance data of the mega-jet to see if it was also suitable for service to New York and Hong Kong, the airline’s other long-haul routes.

“The A380, in an increasingly congested environment, is the airliner of the future and for which Boeing has no direct competitor. We will start taking the 747-400s out of service within the next five to six years, but need a replacement aircraft that can exceed the 747 payload.”

Viljoen said that the airline, for the last 20 or 30 years, had been buying aircraft on an ad-hoc basis with no thought to the future.

“We now have a strategy and goals in place that will generate sizeable cost savings and contribute in no small way to our financial recovery.”

And Viljoen admitted, notwithstanding recent reports of a financial turnaround: “Without this strategy of acquiring new aircraft, SAA would have ceased to exist in the next couple of years.”

Already there are indications that the decision to acquire a new fleet was the correct one.

The first of 12 new A340-600s, which arrived in South Africa two weeks ago, completed a flight to Hong Kong this week.

The aircraft needed 28 ton s of fuel less than the B747 Classic which usually services the route – a saving of some R77 000. It also carried an extra 30 ton s in weight, increasing revenue further. And it needed only three cockpit crew rather than five.

SAA estimates that over a year the A340 will carry four times the payload of a B747 Classic on the Hong Kong route. And studies have shown that to New York, the A340 will use around 22 ton s of fuel less than the B747-400 .

If SAA is to have the A380 in service by 2008, the airline needs to place its order before year-end – over 100 have already been ordered by other carriers. Observers say that the order is a fait accompli.