Boeing to build new super jet to challenge Airbus A380
BOEING is to strike back at Airbus with the launch in a few months of a new version of the venerable Boeing 747 called the 747 Advanced. British Airways may become one of the first customers.
Revelations of Boeingâs plans will intensify its commercial rivalry with Airbus, which is due to stage the first flight of its new $13.5 billion (ÂŁ7.2 billion) A380 within weeks. It will supersede the 747 as the largest passenger airliner.
The Boeing move will also add fuel to the trade battle between Europe and America over subsidies to aircraft makers. A breakdown in talks last week between Peter Mandelson, the European trade commissioner, and Robert Zoellick, his US counterpart, means the issue may now have to be resolved by lengthy litigation through the World Trade Organisation.
Boeing has flirted with new versions of the 747 for more than a decade, but to date has failed to win interest from airlines, leaving the way clear for Airbus to develop the A380.
The advent of the A380 has killed off sales of 747 passenger aircraft, although Boeing is still working through a small backlog of orders and continues to sell 747 freighters. If Boeing fails to back the new plans, 747 production could end next year.
Senior sources at British Airways said the airline had held talks with Boeing about the new aircraft. Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific, which like BA have not ordered the A380, have also been in negotiations over the 747 Advanced.
The aircraft would use new engines from Rolls-Royce and General Electric that were developed for another new Boeing product, the mid-sized 787.
The 747 Advanced would have greater range, modified wings and carry 30 more passengers â 450 rather than 420 â than the existing 747. The rival A380 will carry about 550.
The BA source indicated an announcement could be made at the Paris Air Show, the biennial showcase of the worldâs aerospace industry that starts on June 13.
An announcement in Paris would be doubly galling for Airbus, as the event was intended to be a showcase for the A380, which was unveiled to the public in January by Tony Blair, Franceâs Jacques Chirac, Germanyâs Gerhard Schröder and Spainâs JosĂ© Luis RodrĂguez Zapatero. Airbus executives told journalists that the A380 â which had been expected to fly at the Paris show â would probably be only on static display.
The A380 has yet to make its first flight â originally this was forecast for the end of April.
Boeing declined to comment, but a senior company source confirmed that it was âalmost certainâ to launch the 747 Advanced within âthe next few monthsâ. There was no current plan to make the announcement at the Paris Air Show.
âWe see the aircraft as filling a gap between the 777 (Boeingâs next-smallest aircraft that carries up to 380 people) and the A380. There are airlines that would love a more efficient aircraft, but cannot justify all the seats of the A380, or the price,â the source said.
If Boeing decides not to go ahead with the 747 Advanced, it will probably mean the end of an aircraft that has dominated long-haul aviation for more than 30 years. With- out approval for the 747 Advanced, production of the aircraft would probably end at Boeingâs Seattle commercial aircraft plants some time next year.
Boeing started an in-depth review of its plans for the future of the 747 at the start of this year. An insider said the company had concluded that it could not leave Airbus to exploit a large part of the commercial aviation market unchallenged.
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