21 November 2012
Ray
Conner’s mission is to sell airplanes — that is hundreds of Boeing
airplanes of all sizes. He has built airplanes, sold airplanes and
serviced airplanes, capping his 34-year career with Boeing by becoming
its president and CEO for commercial airplanes in June this year. The
man who lives and breathes aircraft talks to Khaleej Times on what
Boeing has up its sleeves.
Q: Emirates airline is ready to put
money — an estimated $36 billion — on the proposed 777x. President Tim
Clark recently went on record saying that the airline would love to
replace the entire 777 fleet with a new variant. How far have your talks
with prospective buyers for the 777x reached?
A: The talks
are very preliminary at this point. But we’re gathering information from
airlines today as to exactly what they are looking for in terms of
size. Size is really the most important thing for us, so that we can
start to focus our energy around the design characteristics of an
airplane of a particular size. That’s what we are trying to nail down
right now. Once we get that right in terms of the feedback from our
customers, then we know what the airplane will look like, and then get
down to the nuts and bolts of building the airplane.
The 777
is a proven aircraft. If the proposed 777x incorporates most of the
new-gen interior and performance features, don’t you think it might take
the sheen out of the Dreamliner?
No, it’s a completely
different market. When you look at the seat counts, that’s where you
start to see the difference. You have a family of the 787 starting with
the 787-8. Then you go to a stretched version, the 787-9, which would be
15 per cent longer. Then we would stretch again with a potentially new
airplane, the -10, which would be another 15 per cent on top of that, so
[that’s] a 30 per cent longer figure than the 787-8 plane.
Here,
the 777x will be much bigger than that. So if the -10 is around 323
seats, the 777x will be much larger than that, more like 300 yards,
which is about 365 seats in three class configurations. Maybe, even
bigger than that. So you might get closer to the 400-seat range. So we
always have customers for different models depending on the seat counts.
Would it be right if I qualify the 787 as the ultimate flying machine?
Yes,
the 787 is the ultimate flying machine so far from Boeing. It’s a big
technological leap. This is a new-generation plane that benefits both
the airline and the passenger. The airplane has unmatched fuel
efficiency, burning 20 per cent less fuel than its conventional
counterparts. It is also a more productive asset for airlines because it
takes less maintenance.
Is the Dreamliner meant for long-haul use like the ones most of your present customers are operating?
A good aspect
of the 787 is it can do shorter hauls too and still be very efficient.
One of the reasons why you have bigger airplanes is that it’s the only
way we can make it economical — put lots of seats in them and fly that
way. But the operating cost of this airplane is a lot more economical.
You can have more seat counts and fly shorter distances, and still be
very profitable. And that is one of the great things about the operating
cost of this machine.
You have used composite material for
fuel efficiency on the 787. Will you consider using similar material in
other sought-after models?
It depends on — as we move forward
— what exactly we want to do, like things you could do particularly
with the wings. Obviously, the composite brings a lot more performance.
Composite wings are phenomenal in terms of their characteristics, in
terms of performance. And that will be very difficult to move away from;
if you’re gonna move away from it, it’ll have to be a move to get
something that gives you better performance. The fuselage is also
unique. It’s one single-piece round barrel so it takes away lots of the
typical joints and panels and those kinds of things. So to what extent
we can go in the material use would vary from airplane to airplane.
How many orders are there now for the 787?
At
this point, 838 orders. Middle East customers include Etihad Airways,
Qatar Airways, Saudia, Gulf Air, Royal Jordanian and Oman. The order
book is quite big actually. So, yes, we are very excited about it.
There is talk that some Asian carriers are planning to reschedule the delivery program. Will it impact your project in any way?
No,
no. We’ll be fine. We have so much demand, to be honest with you. If we
have somebody that does want to move or something like that, we have
the ability to move other people there.
Some airline chiefs,
including Qatar Airways’ Akbar Al Baker, have talked about the
flexibility to switch models or variants. Is that true?
We
always have that kind of conversation with customers. What he was
talking about was a switch within the family. He has a number of
airplanes on order, like the 787. So if he has -8, and then -9 and -10
are available, he may want to switch to any of the variants. So if we
are given enough time and we have the capability to do that, we always
try to accommodate our customers. That’s what we do. Now, if you are
talking about switching from one model to another model, that’s a little
bit of a different story. Then it becomes a matter of whether or not I
can do it or [if the switch] makes sense.
A couple of months
ago, Mr Al Baker was talking about some “material defects” on the 787 GE
engine. Then the delivery came soon. Has that matter been sorted out?
Yes.
It is a well-known situation in the industry. That was just a one-time
occurrence. The situation is under control. GE addressed it right away
and, yes, it has been taken care of.
Is the 787-9 under active development?
Yes, it is scheduled to enter service in early 2014.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com
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