“There are no more 747-400s for sale,” according to Boeing vice-president of marketing Randy Tinseth. After several years of stressing over whether to relaunch the venerable 747 Jumbo Jet, Boeing took the plunge by finally announcing its successor, the 747-8, in November 2005.
The aircraft applies some of the innovative new technologies of the 787 which should give it a 10% cost advantage over its predecessor, the 747-400.
First challenges
“One of the first challenges for us was could we build a bridge between them,” says Tinseth. In production terms, a gulf between rolling out the final 747-400 and beginning 747-8 manufacture would have been commercial suicide. Boeing needed enough 747-400 orders to keep the line moving until the 747-8 could get up and running. In the end, “we not only did it, we built the bridge quicker than we believed possible”, says Tinseth.
It has been cargo operators that have carried the 747-8 so far. The customers that launched the aircraft were Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines with orders for 10 and 8 of the freighter version respectively. “That was the market segment that was ready first,” says Tinseth. Cargolux will take delivery of the first 747-8 in the third quarter of 2009.
The first passenger airline to order the 747-8 is Lufthansa. It will take the first of 20 747-8s in 2010. Although sales of the passenger version have been slow so far, Boeing is confident it is only a matter of time.
The 747-8 now has 87 orders for both the freighter and passenger versions combined.
Source: Flight Daily News
