The story of two press releases

There is a story between the lines of the two press release (actually one) sent out by Cargolux and Boeing. To boil it all down, there is animosity over what happened last month and it reflected in what was said and what wasn't said. Here are the two releases. The first was not a press release but blog posting by Boeing's marketing chief, Randy Tinseth:

Delivery day for Cargolux
I’m happy to announce that we’ve resolved the contractual issues that delayed the first delivery of our new 747-8 Freighter last month. I’m even happier to let you know that Cargolux will take delivery of their first freighter today (October 12) and immediately put it into service with a stop at Sea-Tac Airport for a cargo pickup. On Thursday, Cargolux will take delivery of its second 747-8F.

Even though we had to wait a bit longer than expected, it doesn’t make these deliveries any less sweet. We know Cargolux and every customer after them will love this airplane in every way—from how it flies to how it performs.

I’d like to personally congratulate every employee who had a hand in working on this beautiful new symbol of Boeing. We all look forward to seeing it take to the sky as an official member of the Cargolux fleet.

Here's Cargolux's statement:

Cargolux successfully resolves contractual issuesLuxembourg,

12th October 2011

Cargolux announced today that the delivery of the first two Boeing 747-8
Freighters initially scheduled for 19 and 21 September is proceeding on 12 and
13 October 2011 following the resolution of contractual issues between Boeing,
GE and Cargolux related to the performance of the aircraft and the engines.
In its meeting on 7 October, the Cargolux Board of Directors appreciated
that the negotiation team (Akbar al Baker (Director), Frank Reimen (President
and Chief Executive Officer) and David Arendt (Executive Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer)) and Company management took the appropriate actions to
ensure that the 747-8 entry into service issues be resolved successfully.
Frank Reimen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cargolux, said: ‘I am
pleased that we have reached agreement on the contractual issues. The 747-8
Freighter will be a driver of profitable growth for Cargolux’.
Launch customer Cargolux has 13 Boeing 747-8 Freighter airplanes on firm order.
As an enhanced variant of the 747-400 cargo aircraft, the new-generation 747-8
Freighter offers a variety of benefits over its predecessor, including
additional payload, less fuel burn and carbon emissions and a considerably lower
noise footprint.

Nowhere in either statement does either company congratulate the other. Randy thanks the employees of Boeing who designed and built the aircraft whereas the Cargolux statement thanks the CEO Frnak Reimen, CFO David Arendt and first and never least, Akbar Al-Baker (U-Turn Al) for leading the negotiations. Funny enough that Cargloux does acknowledge the better fuel burn over the 747-400. The last telling clue about the now strained relationship is that there was no ceremony celebrating the first delivery of this airplane like there was for the 787 and that there appears to be a "stealth delivery" with no mention from either side that it was taking place until after the Flightaware notifications went out.

I do think Boeing will eventually hold an appropriate ceremony when the next customer 747-8F is delivered (which I believe to be Cathay Pacific Cargo) if anything to put this awful experience behind them. At least U-Tuen Al won't be there to spoil the celebrations.