|
Boeing jet draws interest
|
 |
March 30, 2001: 9:58 a.m. ET
Chiefs of UAL, Singapore Airlines and Air Canada express interest in fast jet
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Boeing Co.'s plan to develop a long-range near-supersonic jet was applauded by some of the world's top airline executives Friday, the day after the world's leading aircraft maker announced plans for the jet.
"We are excited that Boeing has taken on this challenge," said James Goodwin, CEO of UAL Corp., which owns United Airlines, the world's largest carrier.
 Cheong Choong Kong, the CEO of Singapore Airlines, told reporters his company wants to talk further with Boeing about the plane, which would cruise about 20 percent faster than a typical commercial jet. Singapore Airlines is Asia's most profitable carrier and seen as a bellwether purchaser of new aircraft. It was the launch customer last September for Airbus Industrie's A380 double-deck super-jumbo jet when it agreed to buy 10 of the jets, with options for another 15.
Airbus has announced orders for 62 of the A380s, with options for another 54, while Boeing was unable to find any interest in a larger, longer-range version of its 747 jumbo jet, which prompted it to shelve that project Thursday and concentrate on the near supersonic jet.
 The jet is expected to fly at 95 percent of the speed of sound, rather than the 80 percent flown by current passenger jets. Boeing said that would allow it to cut about an hour off travel time for every 3,000 miles traveled, about the distance from Seattle to Miami.
The aircraft also is expected to have longer range than any currently on the market, able to fly at least 9,000 miles due to its large fuel capacity. That would give it the range to fly nonstop from Chicago to Sydney, Australia.
Boeing said it believes it can have the plane ready to carry passengers by 2007, give or take a year. The Wall Street Journal Friday said analysts it talked to estimated that Boeing would spend more than twice as much to develop the new faster jet than the $3 billion it expected to spend on a new, larger version of the 747.
The new aircraft is expected to be a double-aisle wide-body jet carrying between 100 and 300 passengers, depending on seating configuration. Boeing said that by staying below the speed of sound, it will be far more fuel efficient than the Concorde, the only supersonic passenger aircraft. Safety problems have grounded the Concorde, but even when it was flying high operating costs gave it questionable profitability even at the premium fares paid by passengers.
Click here for a look at airline stocks
Click here for a look at aerospace stocks
The UAL and Singapore chiefs were in London Friday for a meeting of members of the Star Alliance, a group of 15 airlines that share flight codes, routes and interconnections. One of the other airline chiefs at the meeting also expressed interest in the new jet.
"Air Canada would definitely line up in the extremely interested prospective customer category," the airline's boss, Robert Milton, said.
Shares of Boeing (BA: Research, Estimates) were up 85 cents to $56.80 early Friday.
-- from staff and wire reports 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
