Cathay Pacific Looks to Bolster Fleet with Boeing Orders

A Cathay Pacific 777-9X Artist Rendering. Courtesy of Boeing.

Cathay Pacific has spent this holiday season ramping up its fleet and preparing for the future. The first was announced on December 20th when the carrier announced its order for 21 777-9X's becoming the Asian launch carrier for the type.

"The 777-9X promises us improved payload range capability and reduced operating costs, in addition to a significant reduction in environmental emissions," said John Slosar, chief executive of Cathay Pacific Airways. "We think it will be an ideal fot for long-haul destinations in North America and Europe, in particular those routes where we carry high volumes of passengers and cargo each day. Cathay Pacific is committed to modernizing its fleet to provide a superior experience to passengers."

The order, at list price, is valued at $7 Billion US, HK$58 Billion. Cathay Pacific expects to take delivery of the aircraft between 2021 and 2024.

"Cathay Pacific and Bowing share a long-term partnership that spans four decades," said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner. "We are honored to continue our tradition of launching new airplane models with Cathay Pacific in Asia, starting with the Rolls Royce powered 747-400 and the original 777-200, 777-300, 777-300ER and naturally, now with the 777X family."

Slosar added that, "the 777-300ER has done a superb job for us and Cathay Pacific is now the second largest operator of the type. We are now delighted to be an early customer for this next generation of the 777 aircraft."

A Cathay Pacific 777-300ER departs LAX.

Just a week later on December 27th the carrier announced an additional order for one more 747-8F and three more 777-300ER.

When delivered that will bolster Cathay Pacific's fleet of 747-8F fleet to 14 and its 777-300ER fleet to 53. The airline will take delivery of the 747-8F in 2016 and the three 777-300ER's in 2015.

A Cathay Pacific 747-8F Departs from ANC.

GEnx Engine ETOPs still on time

Photo Taken at BFI as the first of two GEnx Powered 787's departs on a test flight.

Flight Global reported today that General Electric (GE) is quickly approaching the required number of cycles for it GEnx-1B for Extended Operations commonly referred to as ETOPs. The GEnx-1B is used to power the Boeing 787. Having just surpassed 2000 of the required 3000 test cycles GE says that they are still on schedule for certification to be achieved in April, despite the month that they lost during testing when cracks were discovered on one of the engines main turbine blades just after 1500 cycles.

The cracks were found in January during a normal inspection of the engines after it reached the halfway point of the testing phases. GE pulled the blade off the engine to service it and fix the cracks and was placed back on the engine in late February when testing was then resumed.

Since this was discovered during a normal inspection similar to that of normal operating procedures it was deemed that it did not affect the normal operation of the GEnx-1B and was not any type of abnormal wear and tear.

GE believes that final testing and certification for the engine with the FAA will be completed by October in time for Boeing to deliver the first GEnx-1B powered aircraft to Japan Airlines.

5 747-8I's for Air China

Photo Courtesy of Boeing. An artist rendition of what the plan will look like.

Today Boeing and Hong Kong based Air China announced an agreement for 5 747-8I aircraft. Air China will become the first Chinese airline to order the all new more fuel efficient plane.

The aircraft will likely be put on routes such as LAX and JFK that are already served by 747-400's. Air China's president is excited about the announcement and believes that is will bring a better experience for it's customers.

This is the third airline customer for the passenger version of the aircraft. The other two are launch customer Germany's Lufthansa and South Korea's Korean Air.

Tanker Contest Finally Decided!

Photo courtesy of Boeing.

On Thursday the United States Air Force announced that it has selected Boeing to build the new Next Gen Tanker. Boeing has announced that it will be known as the KC-46A air Refueling Jet.

Boeing will produce 179 tankers to replace the quickly aging 1950's KC-135. Some of the stipulations are that Boeing must have 17 of the airplanes combat ready by 2017. It is expected that the first flight will be in 2015 for the Next Gen Tanker. The cost of the program is expected to be around 35 Billion.

One other company attempted to bid for the contract as well. EADS which was bringing the A330 aerial refueler to the table. This was the third attempt for this contract after it was originally awarded to EADS who was teamed with Northrop Grumman back in 2008, but Boeing then decided to protest that decision and after review it was found that the board made mistakes in judging the contest. The other time was in 2002 when Boeing was the only competitor for the contract. But after an investigation is was proven that there were some major mistakes made in that attempt.

The airplanes final assembly will take place in Everett, WA where flight testing will then be conducted. After initial tests the airplanes will be flown to Wichita, KS where the more interior modifications will take place.