All Nippon Airways Orders 50 Dreamliners…
With U.S. airlines increasingly looking elsewhere for aircraft, Boeing decided to do the same in its quest for customers for the 7E7 Dreamliner. The strategy paid off with the largest single order in the company’s history (and not from a U.S. company) on Monday and the official launch of production of the new airliner. All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced it would purchase 50 Dreamliners, worth $6 billion if the airline paid full price for them (they rarely do). The price was not disclosed but analysts quoted by various news outlets all said ANA almost certainly got a hefty discount to be the launch customer of Boeing’s first new jet in more than a decade … and that a launch at 50 orders may be a bit out of the ordinary. Some analysts noted that Boeing has traditionally waited until it had at least 100 orders before launching a new aircraft line and said Monday’s announcement was an indication of how anxious Boeing is to reclaim some of its standing in the commercial jet market. “Boeing had really kind of developed an image of ‘all hat and no cattle’ to use a Texas term, so this finally is saying, ‘Yeah, we’re here to make airplanes,'” aviation consultant Scott Hamilton told the Associated Press. In the past year Airbus overtook Boeing in deliveries for the first time and there’s been plenty of commentary suggesting Boeing was going to concentrate more on military business.
