Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Boeing has added 163 aircraft to its firm order backlog by revoking its policy of not listing sales to unidentified customers. The aircraft, ordered over the past two years, are valued at $9 billion.
The US manufacturer says its move to "adopt an industry-wide practice" and include unidentified customers adds 99 aircraft to its 1999 order intake, taking the total so far to 368. This figure includes the newly announced sale of 20 aircraft to US leasing company GE Capital Aviation Services.
The move boosts Boeing's order backlog to 1,527 aircraft as of 15 December, compared with Airbus Industrie's 1,436 to the end of November. Airbus has taken 417 firm orders so far in 1999, bringing the industry total to 785 aircraft, compared with 1,200 in 1998.
Boeing's 163 new orders from undisclosed customers include:
• a 737 Classic (a -300 believed to be for Air New Zealand);
• 131 Next Generation 737s;
• a 747-400 (believed to be for United Arab Emirates Amiri Flight);
• 14 757-200s;
• 12 767s;
• four 777s (two -200ERs and two -300s).
The GECAS deal, worth $2.6 billion, includes 15 767-300ERs and five 747-400F freighters. All aircraft are powered by General Electric CF6-80C2s and will be delivered to GECAS beginning in the fourth quarter of 2000. Boeing says the leasing company has the option of substituting stretched 767-400ERs for 767-300ERs.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group president Alan Mulally says the company is "on track" to deliver a record 620 aircraft in 1999, and forecasts it will deliver 480 "or a little higher" in 2000. He expects order intake in 2000 to be "about the same level or slightly higher than this year - if Asia comes back as expected".
Acknowledging that Boeing's order intake, even including the newly revealed unidentified customers, is down on 1998's total of 648 aircraft, Mulally argues that deliveries should be used as the measure of market leadership.
Source: Flight International
