China Eastern abandons 787 order for 737s

[alberttky 0]

Citing the extended delivery delays in the Boeing 787 programme China Eastern has cancelled orders for 24 of the widebody aircraft, and has opted to convert those positions to 45 737 narrowbodies.

 

The move drops Boeing's 787 backlog below 800 for the first time, and is the first publicly acknowledged cancellation due to the delays to the programme. Previously, customers had cited economic instability as the reason for cancelling orders.

 

China Eastern in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong said the order for 45 "brand new" 737 aircraft is worth $3.3 billion at list prices, but the company extracted "significant price concessions" from the airframer.

 

The carrier stated the aircraft will be used primarily to satisfy rising domestic demand and increasing demand on international and regional medium and-short-haul routes.

 

The order for the 24 widebody aircraft was split between nine 787s for subsidiary Shanghai Airlines and 15 for China Eastern.

 

The 45 new 737s are expected to be delivered in stages from 2014 to 2016, and will increase the airline's capacity by 8.65% based on 31 December 2010 levels.

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/china-eastern-abandons-787-order-for-737s-363530/

 

China Eastern orders 15 A330s, drops five A340s

 

China Eastern Airlines has agreed to purchase 15 Airbus A330 aircraft, and will dispose of five A340-300s.

 

The SkyTeam carrier's announcement was followed shortly by a statement that it would drop orders for 24 Boeing 787s, and convert them to 45 737s.

 

China Eastern's 15 A330s will be delivered from 2013 to 2015, said the airline, which did not specify an engine choice for the aircraft.

 

The carrier stated the listed price of the purchase as $2.53 billion, and plans to use the aircraft to meet increasing demand in its domestic, regional and international medium and long-haul passenger markets.

 

Along with the A330s order agreement, China Eastern will dispose of five A340-300s, which had been scheduled to be delivered in 2012.

 

The A330s purchase and the A340s disposal will lower the unit operation cost of the airline, said China Eastern. Dropping the A340s would decrease the available tonne kilometres (ATKs) of the airline by about 3.68%, it added, but the A330s purchase would grow ATKs by 9.41%.

 

China Eastern operates a fleet of 20 A330s comprising 15 -300s and five -200s, Flightglobal's ACAS database shows. All are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700s.

 

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/china-eastern-orders-15-a330s-drops-five-a340s-363531/

[flee 5]

 

It is more like abandoning the B787 for the A330 to me! I think that they might also be shifting their emphasis to more frequencies for their domestic ops as these are highly profitable in view of the difficulties China's railways are currently experiencing.

 

Airbus has a lot to thank the B787 for the extended life of the A330! They must now focus on delivering the A350 on time. Otherwise, all the advantage gained will be handed back to Boeing as B787 production ramps up.

Edited October 18, 2011 by flee

[BC Tam 2]

Wishful thinking, but could MH be proactive enough to quickly secure those 787 delivery slots ?

[flee 5]

Wishful thinking, but could MH be proactive enough to quickly secure those 787 delivery slots ?

Don't think MH can consider any new aircraft orders now. It has to complete its business review first before it knows what it needs for future ops. Besides, they still have a lot of A333s on order.

 

Any order for the B787 would probably replace the current A333s - so MH does not need them for some time yet.

[Johan Z 0]

Wishful thinking, but could MH be proactive enough to quickly secure those 787 delivery slots ?

 

I would think Boeing will give priority to airlines which already have orders in place, or no?

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

The airline could perhaps sell their slots. However in this case after cancellation. It is at Boeing's discretion

[flee 5]

Boeing is not too worried about cancellations at the moment as it will help to ease the delays for some of its customers. Besides, the early airframes are sold at prices that may not be profitable. Any new orders now will probably be sold at higher prices.

[Josh T 0]

China Eastern are quite diplomatic about the B787 order cancellation. They've basically replaced the B787 with the A330.

[flee 5]

I think that airlines that have firm plans will find it very disruptive if the planes that they have ordered do not have a firm delivery date. That is why they cancelled.

 

The A330 has fewer uncertainties as far as delivery dates are concerned.