Boeing: high oil prices 'an opportunity'
14.07.08
Soaring oil prices are an ‘opportunity’ that will speed up orders for new aircraft that consume less fuel, the chief executive of US aircraft giant Boeing James McNerney said in an interview published yesterday.
Mr McNerney told the weekly Journal du Dimanche: ‘The high price of oil is speeding up the process of the oldest, least efficient planes being taken out of service because they are no longer profitable. We are already seeing it in the US and it is starting to happen in Europe.'
He said that the this was ‘an opportunity’ which ‘will speed up orders for more recent models, which consume 30% to 40% less than the oldest planes still in service.’ Acknowledging that ‘the current period is clearly difficult’ for airlines, he added that no orders had been cancelled to date and that while some airlines would need help in buying new planes Boeing would ‘support them through its financial services subsidiary.’
He also told the paper that Boeing planned to launch a successor to its 737 ‘at the end of the next decade’ with the aim of producing a plane ‘15% more economical’ than existing aircraft.
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