Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Qatar to exercise 787 options?

Boeing Photo
Boeing delivered two 787-8 Dreamliners to Qatar Airways today in Everett in a ceremony attended by Akbar (U-Turn Al) Al-Baker.  Qatar Airways will have their full complement of 30 787-8s by the end of next year but they also have 30 options still waiting to be exercised.

Al Baker said that Qatar Airways will look to firm the 30 options that they hold for the 787 though no timing was given.

The interesting question is now which model and when will they be delivered.  As some readers may recall, Qatar Airways staff had a tense relationship with Boeing workers at Charleston where Boeing had decided that Qatar's 787-8s would be built. Thus if they selects the 787-10 can Qatar's staff work with the Boeing Charleston staff? Certainly if Qatar firms up the 787-9 they can be built in Everett but at the end of the day Qatar will choose the right mix of 787s regardless of where they're built.

As to when they firm it up, well I had expected that to happen at the Paris Air Show this pat summer.  I also had expectation of an announcement today (I'm sure Boeing and Al-Baker did talk about firming the options behind close doors) but I think it may happen late next month if it is to happen before year end but quite possibly we can see the order at next week's Dubai Air Show.

4 comments:

Paul Clark said...

Qatar normally has a very significant presence at the Dubai Airshow which is later this month, and Al-Baker has used the venue to make announcements in the past. So I wouldn't be surprised if more was said then....

Jet.Fuel.773-er said...

I would venture to guess that he would give the 787-10 a try.

Pete Templin said...

Seems like you're missing some words where you talk about "where Boeing had decided that Qatar's 787-8s.", and a typo with "As to whee".

Any insight into the difficulties that have crept back into the Charleston process? For example, LN369 appears to have entered production (C 88-30 Bay 1A) around 9/21, and just emerged from C 88-30 around 11/4, whereas LN372 entered production (E 40-26 Bay 1A) around 9/23, and emerged around 10/22. Seems like there's an extra ~15 days in the plant for planes to be assembled, making them appear to be ~2.5 planes behind.

Josh said...

Isn't that because of the production rate? I think Everett is at 7 to Charleston's 3-4 planes per month.