Is this
really good news for Boeing...?

It's the only news possible.

In the 1970s Boeing bet the company on the 747. Now Airbus is betting
the company on the Next Bigger Thing. Boeing has absolutely no
response to this.

If Boeing set out to build a Bigger Thing faster or better than
Airbus, it would only succeed in crippling both companies, because it
needs the 747 income to survive.

If it crosses its fingers and hopes that Airbus comes a pratfall, it
risks becoming irrelevant and fading away. Who will buy the 747 if the
NBT (I never can remember those Airbus designations) is actually a
decent aircraft? It's bigger and a whole lot newer.

Overall, Airbus's fleet is newer than Boeing's, if somewhat duller.
Boeing has got to bet on something quirky that will replace planes it
can afford to lose (757, 767) while stealing orders from planes Airbus
*can't* afford to lose.

With me, Boeing has already won. I'd never fly a jumbo jet if there
was a twin-aisle widebody available, whether it's a 747 or a NBT..
I'll take the 787 (as I assume it will finally be named) over anything
else on the market, Airbus or Boeing.




all the best -- Dan Ford
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