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Browsing Tag: Boeing Commercial Airplanes

What is Boeing’s Big Order Announcement in New York Tomorrow?

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A Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental on the factory floor in Everett.

A Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental on the factory floor in Everett.

I love a good mystery. Today Boeing sent out a media advisory saying that tomorrow there will be an event in New York City to, “announce a significant airplane purchase agreement.” Now, what could this be?

The release does not say much, but gives away two interesting details. First, it will be held at a very nice hotel. I don’t want to name the exact hotel, but if I were to try and get a room there tomorrow, the cheapest is over $600.00 and the Penthouse is about $10,000. Not your Motel 6.

Also Ray Conner, President and CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes will be at the announcement as well. He doesn’t really show up to many order announcements, so this is something special.

So who will be the airline and what aircraft will they be ordering? Some of my thoughts:

  • The venue is nice. I think this eliminates most low cost carriers, at least those in the US. Actually, I would be surprised if this was a US carrier at all. The only US carrier, who would be making a Boeing purchase and announcing in NYC I could see is Delta. But my bet is a foreign carrier.
  • My guess is the order will be significant. Either with the number of planes or aircraft type. There have been some pretty large numbers of 737 orders already and it would probably need to be significant for this sort of announcement.
  • Honestly, I hope that it is an order for the 747-8 Intercontinental — especially from a US carrier. There haven’t been very many and additional orders would call for celebration.
  • I wouldn’t see this being an order for the 787 Dreamliner. It is still a sore topic and not currently flying.
  • I think the Boeing 737 MAX is a great airplane, but no offense, the order announcements are not as exciting anymore. I am kind of hoping for a different aircraft type.
  • A MAX order from JetBlue (who is based in NYC) would excite me, but I do not see that happening.
  • Could this be a combo? Boeing could officially announce the 777X and the first airline to order it? It seems a bit early, but it would take some attention away from the 787 and help to move Boeing forward.

Stay tuned. @AirlineFlyer will be reporting for @AirlineReporter in New York City tomorrow and follow both Twitter accounts for the announcement. The event is set to start at 10:15am EST.  Until then…

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Who do you think the airline will be? What aircraft will they order? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Update: Reuters is reporting that they are hearing Ryanair will announce an order for 150 Boeing 737 NG’s tomorrow. Sure, great for Boeing to keep their 737NG (which is still a great plane) line going. Also would be good for Ryanair to finally be able to add more aircraft and routes, but I hope that this is not the announcement. Just not very exciting or sexy — give me some wide bodies here.

Also, the location of a posh hotel does not make sense for Ryanair, since they want to be seen as an ultra low-cost carrier. The biggest question for me is: Why New York City? Now, if they are announcing the 737 order and plans to fly to NYC, then I am interested for sure.

I am going to say that I do not think Ryanair will be involved with tomorrow’s announcement.

Update2: And I was wrong (hey it happens). A bit after 2am PST, Boeing sent out a press release giving a large preview of their announcement.