Qantas has cancelled 15 Boeing 787s and delayed the first tranche of deliveries from the balance of a remaining firm order of 50 of the jets for four years.
The move saves the airline $US 3 billion in capital expenditure liabilities, and also keeps it clear of the consequences of current issues with the design of the 787.
The details from the Qantas press release are shown below:-
Update: Qantas is not elaborating on the announcement at this stage, but a decision on how to replace some aged aircraft capacity in its fleet that was to have been taken over by 787s in the next four years will be made in coming days or weeks.
This is expected to involve additional Airbus A330s, but inevitably, some might argue for a Boeing 777 solution for some longer range and higher capacity routes. There is no sign however of the 777 being under consideration at Qantas.
The sting in the detail of the Qantas announcement has been pointed out by insiders. This morning’s announcement doesn’t take into account the design issues in the 787 revealed yesterday. That comes later, when Qantas learns more.
6 Comments
Probably a good thing seeing as the wings fall off while it is taxiing on runway. Airbus must be jumping for joy at least theirs get in the air before crashing
In addition to defects as a result of dodgy composite-metallic interface stress modeling… now the order book is starting to delaminate.
This is a mess for Boeing. The financial implications of this yet-further production delay, not to mention the real prospect that airlines the world over will use the opportunity of this production delay to trigger walk-away clauses and cancellations at the time when there’s no short- or medium-term need to add capacity could be crippling for Boeing.
And actually, to the other commentator who suggested Airbus must be humping for joy – no, I don’t think so. The wounds of the A380 delays cut deep inside Airbus: it was – and remains – a most humbling experience for them.
Was that really necessary Durutticolumn?
Thanks for your excellent coverage of this slow-motion train (or plane?) wreck.
There’s another totally FUBAR large aircraft project out there – the Airbus A400M military airlifter which is already running late, is overweight and p*ssing off customers. It would be interesting to see a comparison between the two as there appear to be at least two parallels: dramatic technical change for the market segment (C130-and radical changes in manufacturing arrangements. In other words, a combination of technical risk and organisational risk.
The A400 problem is compounded by, I understand, a fixed-price contract. But if it fails the customers just go back to uprated Hercs; the 787 though could derail airline plans for years to come. And in the case of the A400M Airbus was going into a totally different market and type of aircraft, but Boeing is building what’s been its bread-and-butter for over 50 years.
Malcolm,
The A400M is so badly screwed up the cancellation of the project, or morphing it sideways into something else, say a GTF powered battle field lifter, has to be seen as a distinct possibility.
I was at the press conference when Airbus announced it would opt for a European engine consortium power plant instead of the intended deal with P&W. Other specialised defence observers suggested even then that this could be the marker from which all would go down hill.
While so far Plane Talking is airline centric, it may expand a bit into defence related aviation in the future. Hell, it’s all aviation, so it should.