Boeing delays delivery of 787/777s to Air Canada
 

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=501353

Air Canada will have to wait two years longer than expected before taking delivery of the first of its new Boeing Dreamliners, the airline revealed on Thursday.

Boeing has told Air Canada to expect delivery of the first of the 37 planes Air Canada has ordered in January, 2012. That's some 24 to 30 months later than Air Canada had previously expected to take first delivery of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner series.

Air Canada will be seeking compensation from Boeing for the delays, Montie Brewer, Air Canada chief executive, told a conference call on Thursday.

With the much delayed A380 and the pending delays to the A350, Boeing has missed the chance to step on the throats of their only competition with a timely, successful launch of the B787. That's gotta sting upper management at Boeing and breathe new life into Airbus.

The airlines are stuck, not like they can threaten to bail on the B787 for the A350. I don't see Boeing giving huge compensation to any of the airlines. Bottom line, the Airlines NEED the 787 (much like EK needs their A380s) . . . They really don't have the leverage here.

the airlines would be absolutely idiotic if they didn't factor a contingency plan in the event of a delivery delay considering.....history?

For sure. Think 24 months + is gotta be the absolute worst-case scenario for the airlines though.

Aircraft market is tight but looks like the A330s and 767s will be called on heavily through 2011.

Is the B767 line closed? Think I read recently Airbus has sold more A330s than expected (probably at rock-bottom prices to appease angry A350 and 380 customers)

Will AC be keeping some of their 763's that were due to depart the fleet soon?

I hope they don't decide to keep the 762's.

Random thoughts:
1. A bit odd that AC would be delayed 24-30 months given that I thought the 787 program was "only" delayed by ~18 months.

2. Since it looks like most of the 763's will be in the fleet for at least another 5 years, given the price of fuel I wonder if AC will revisit the idea of adding winglets to the fleet.

3. My guess is that AC has a lot of 763's currently scheduled to go back to lessor before they will now received the 787's. This likely will result in much higher aircraft lease costs when AC has to renew these leases (assuming they can) at market rates rather than what they signed at the depressed time of their CCRA filing.

This is in today's quarterly report:

"We will continue to aggressively review all routes to determine if they
are economically feasible, and make adjustments as required in light of the
current record price levels of fuel. As a result, we have adjusted capacity
for the remainder of the year, including late fall suspensions of service to
Rome and Osaka. These reductions will allow us to remove four older, less fuel
efficient Boeing 767-200 aircraft in addition to what was originally planned."

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/a.../08/c6184.html

I'm not sure how this would affect it. The 763's have been heavily used and with today's economic climate in the US, and surging fuel prices, they aren't particularly attractive aircraft for another carrier to lease. Air Canada might be able to negotiate a decent lease on them.

Does anyone know when these leases expire?

The other thing is that AC can add the difference between what they are paying now and a re-negotiated lease to the compensation it seeks from Boeing.

AC will be impacted by all the other carriers, around the world, who were banking on 787s and need interim lift (see the talk of BA looking for 763s this week as an example). As a result, lease rates - especially for short term leases - will go up. Airlines still will want to expand and the market for used 763s will therefore be strong until 787 production ramps up.

That's exactly correct, plus any projected difference in fuel costs between the two. AC should be able to negotiate something fair with Boeing on this. Maybe even a couple extra 777s to tide them over if any 763s need to be returned to lessors prior to the 787s' arrival.

There has been recent talk about accelerating retirement of these aircraft. Word is they are combing the market for A321's.

How much in compensation can they expect? Will it be a Boeing MCO?
I'd recommend that AC writes to Boeing Customer Solutions via their web site, and waits 2-4 weeks for a reply. :D

If the reply is unsatisfactory or 'rubbish',AC is welcome to start a topic on this site.

Maybe they get a taste of their own medicine. Perhaps they will get a 5% discount towards a future purchase :cool:.

And then they can come on this website and whine incessantly about it.:D

What goes around, comes around. Nothing but silence from the Airbus-bashers now that Boeing has dropped the ball too.
The 767 is still being built (freighters, AWACS/tankers and a few remaining from the CO order). Boeing would likely have to offer new ones at factory-sale prices to convince anyone to bite. A new 767 is still a 767 :( . I'd look for capacity reductions - as mentioned - to tide over until the next generation arrives; the danger being that the market segment lost to other carriers or simply abandoned may be slow to come back.

763's will be here for a while.
762's will be gone by the end of the year.