For Boeing, 'not bad' is good at Paris Air Show - bizjournals:

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On the second day of the world’s oldesf and most important aircraft trade Boeing was againshut out. At least its chieft rival, , hasn’t done much though the European aircraft makere was able to eke out a couplre of orders the lasttwo days. Rather than talk about the kinds of multi-plane deals lined up in past years, Boeing CEO of Commerciakl Airplanes Scott E. Carson instead chose to focus on howthing weren’t as bad as they mighr seem. “At this point it appears to us that the economic conditionshave bottomed,” Carson said, addinyg that the company’s commercial jet division could begin growinvg again as early as 2010.
-- The long-delayed 787 Dreamliner will fly bythe (though it won’rt be taking to the skies over Parias this week, as some had Jon Ostrower, of pegs the date for the first flighg at June 30. He cite s multiple sources for the June30 -- Its new 747-u8 freighter plane will fly its first flight by the end of this -- To get back into the hunt for a $35 billion contract to supply fuel tankers for the U.S. military, Boeingy will reconfigure its 777 to increase fuel It had previously lost its tanker bid to the A350by -- Also on the defense contractingv front, the company it was formingf a division to oversee its unmanned aircraff programs.
This year’s air show come at a gloomy timefor aircraft. Both Boeing and Airbuw have had to deal with cancellationx of ordersfrom credit-crunched And both have had production But Boeing has had the additionao by its machinists within the last year. The companyh has taken hits to its militarycontracting business, with the cancellation of the F-22 and the loss of the tanker And delays in getting its next-generation 787 Dreamline r into the air have been a high-profile So it was up to Carson to search out the positive.
He said his compan would not be cutting back assembly lines this It will cut productionj ofits wide-body 777 by 28 perceng in mid-2010, and will not increase 767 and 747 Airbus has cut production of its A320 single aisld plane and its A380 superjumbo, and has shelvec plans to increase production of its wide-bodyt A330. Carson said he expects the credig crunch on airlines to ease towarda “morwe normal” environment in 2010. That would be good news for and itsrival Airbus, as Boeing’s boss also said that the companyh has a current ordedr book of around $265 which means seven years of and Carson said he doesn’t expect the credirt crisis to significantly affect that.
Some aerospacee experts already see the logivcbehind Carson’s pitch. “Boeing’s news was to say we thinm the recession’s bottoming and we’re not going to see cuts for saidWayne Plucker, Frost & Sullivan’s Aerospace Defense Industry Manager. “The fact that they didn’g have to quietly announce cancellations was abig thing. It’zs not a bad airshow considerinv the gloom anddoom that’s been around the industry for the last For Boeing, it’s not bad, and not bad is so to speak.
” Plucker addecd that good, or at least not bad, news on the commerciall side of the business, would be a welcomd relief, given some of the defeat that Boeing has been handed in its military contractinv business – the loss of the tanker contracg to the Airbus consortium and the high-profilre curtailment of government plans to buy more F-22 “Heaven only knows, they could use some good news,” Plucker “Their defense side has taken a real drubbing.
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