UPS Orders Eight Boeing 747-400 Freighters

Business Wire ^ | August 17, 2005

[Larry Lucido]

does anybody ever fedex stuff to UPS?

LOL! I was thinking along those lines in my #40.

What I wonder is whether Fedex HQ has pickup locations for UPS, Airborne, et al. Something to think about.

[cyborg]

My mom discovered tv shopping. This is why UPS needs more airplanes.

[Larry Lucido]

that Branson guy that owns Virgin Airlines... he said a while back that Boeing would never sell another 747

Yep, now I'm beginning to wonder whether they are really virgins, too.

[Righty_McRight]

Pretty good order considering they're around $250 million each.


SEATTLE, Aug. 17, 2005 -- Boeing and UPS announced today that the package delivery carrier has ordered eight Boeing 747-400 Freighters for delivery in 2007 and 2008. The 747-400F can carry a maximum 120 tons of cargo, 25 tons more cargo than the 747-200 Freighters currently in the UPS fleet. In addition to the higher payload capability of 250,000 pounds (113 tonnes), the 747-400F consumes 15 percent less fuel than its predecessor, allowing the airplane to fly farther and to more destinations.

Boeing Press Release

[Zuben Elgenubi]

"My mom discovered tv shopping. This is why UPS needs more airplanes."

LOL. For me, it's my mother-in-law.

[Sometimes A River]

When was the last 380 ordered?

Anyone know?

[ConservativeStatement]

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a380/

[Yo-Yo]

I thought Northwest Airlines and Fed Ex owned all the DC-10s ever made...

I think the United States Air Force has one or two, but they call them KC-10s...

[ConservativeStatement]

The A350 made a sale today...



CIT Orders 29 Airbus Airplanes Worth $2.2 Billion
Thursday August 18, 8:39 AM EDT


NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- CIT Group Inc. (CIT) (CIT) signed a purchase agreement with aircraft maker Airbus (ABI.YY) for 29 new airplanes worth $2.2 billion, based on Airbus' current list prices.

The purchase agreement covers 24 A320 aircraft, to be delivered in 2007 and 2008, and five A350 aircraft, to be delivered in 2012 and 2013, commercial and consumer finance company CIT said in a press release Thursday.

CIT also has options to acquire additional airplanes.

"We have seen significant improvement in the outlook for the international commercial aerospace sector," said Rick Wolfert, vice chairman, CIT Commercial Finance, in a press release Thursday. Demand from our clients for new aircraft is strong and growing, and rental rates have rebounded nicely."

CIT Aerospace, which leases, finances and manges commercial aircraft and regional jets, said it anticipates "high demand" for both types of aircraft.

New York Stock Exchange-listed shares of CIT Group closed Wednesday at $45.01, down 35 cents, or 0.8%.

Company Web site: http://www.cit.com

-Jenny Park; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-18-05 0839ET

Copyright (c) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

© 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I know, I know. The German and French airlines also have a fondness for them, too.

[ConservativeStatement]

This was in today's Chicago Tribune:

Boeing 747 flying high with orders picking up

By Michael Oneal
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published August 18, 2005

For many observers of the intercontinental dogfight between Chicago-based Boeing Co. and Europe's Airbus SAS, it has long been taken for granted that Boeing's 747 is all but dead.

Apparently, nobody told United Parcel Service Inc.

On Wednesday, UPS gave the iconic humpbacked jumbo jet a new lease on life when it ordered eight cargo versions of the 747-400, worth about $1.8 billion at list prices.

That order, and a surprising streak of 13 others this year, may provide a crucial boost to the program at a time when Boeing is analyzing whether to invest in a new version of the 747 or let it die a natural death.

The company has said it will decide which way to go by the end of this year.

"This gives us a very good indication that we will be able to take a proposal to our board of directors," said a company spokesman.

"Judging by how the situation looks, they're probably going to go ahead [with a launch]," said aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia with the Teal Group near Washington, D.C.

It's easy to see why the outlook for the 747 has been so grim. Once hailed as the "Queen of the Skies," interest in the plane has been waning since 1996, when airlines ordered 60 of them. By 2003, Boeing got only four 747 orders. Last year it won 10.

The company hasn't sold a passenger version of the plane in several years and builds just one plane a month. Analysts have been predicting that the production rate eventually would wind down to nothing.

Soaring fuel costs and sagging traffic after the stock-market-bubble pop have driven airlines to Boeing's 777, which is 90 seats smaller than the 450-seat 747-400 but much more modern and efficient.

If customers want a bigger plane with better efficiencies, they can turn to Airbus for its A380, a 550-seat, double-decked behemoth that took its first test flight this year and will enter commercial service in 2006.

The sag in 747 business has been so pronounced that analysts widely have assumed that Boeing simply planned to cede the upper end of the market to the new Airbus plane, handing over a lucrative monopoly it had enjoyed since launching the 747 in the late 1960s. Airbus has collected 159 orders and commitments for the A380, including 10 from UPS. And Boeing has been focusing most of its energy and investment capital on a much smaller, single-aisle jet called the 787 Dreamliner.

But booming foreign trade over the last year, most of it between the U.S. and Asia, has lit a sudden fire under 747 demand. That has given Boeing another pleasant surprise in a year that has seen the company finally pull out of a nose dive that allowed Airbus to pass it in 2003 as the industry leader in orders and deliveries.

A spokesman for UPS said the issue isn't a competition between the A380 and the 747. The freight giant needs both airplanes to balance its mix and address specific markets, mostly in Asia.

Besides, he said, the 747 is available much sooner. UPS will take delivery of all its Boeing planes in 2007 and 2008 but won't be able to get its first A380 until 2009.

For Boeing, the spurt in demand may provide a crucial bridge between the old 747 and the proposed 747 Advanced, a new, more efficient version under consideration. If Boeing had to stop production of the old plane, it might prove prohibitively expensive to ramp up the assembly lines again for a new version.

This year's orders will give the company the luxury to decide whether to push ahead based on future demand alone. It already has one possible customer: Luxembourg's Cargolux Airlines International SAS recently said that it was negotiating to replace its fleet of 747 cargo planes with at least 10 cargo versions of the 747 Advanced.

Aboulafia suspects that Boeing's final decision will come down to whether the company thinks it can attract customers for both the passenger and cargo versions of the new 747. He believes it can. The A380, he said, is turning out to be heavier and less efficient than originally thought, meaning the 747 Advanced may be more competitive for customers interested in a smaller airplane.

"It's like Mystery Date," he said, comparing the Airbus plane with the old board game. "It could be a dud. It could be a stud."

Both companies will use a new breed of high-powered engine that is quieter and more fuel-efficient than those used on older jets. Boeing is telling airlines that the new engine would help the 747 Advanced save 6 percent on the expense of flying each passenger seat one mile, a common industry cost measure. The new engine also will comply with environmental standards at crucial airports like London's Heathrow.

Inside the plane, Boeing is responding to the challenge posed by the A380 by offering airlines the chance to extend the 747's hump back toward the tail. The so-called Sky Loft would allow for first-class facilities like bunks, cabins or lounges. Or it could be a place to locate galley equipment, making it possible to add more seats below.

Whether customers will respond to the new plane is an open question, but the old one clearly isn't done yet.

"Nobody would have guessed they would have had 21 747 orders in the first half of the year," said analyst Paul Nisbet with JSA Research.

---

mdoneal@tribune.com






Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

[Sometimes A River]

I looked on the Airbus 380 website...it seemed they were around the same number sold as they were several months ago. (Less than 150)

[Brofholdonow]

Yeah. Kind of like Michael Moore trying to squeeze past you on an escalator.

[stboz]

I thought Northwest Airlines and Fed Ex owned all the DC-10s ever made...

I don't know who owns them, but there's a wad of 'em parked in the desert at Mojave and Adelanto.

[PAR35]

I don't know how reliable the report from the Tribune is. For example, "single-aisle jet called the 787 Dreamliner". The 787 is a twin aisle.

[Paleo Conservative]

I think the United States Air Force has one or two, but they call them KC-10s...

The USAF had 60 KC-10's delivered back in the early 1980's. One of them was destroyed, so now they just have 59. All of them will be retrofitted with the same 2 man cockpit used in the MD-11 and that were installed in all of the DC-10's in FedEx's fleet. DC-10's that have been retrofitted with the new 2 man cockpit are redesignated as MD-10's.

[Yo-Yo]

All of them will be retrofitted with the same 2 man cockpit used in the MD-11

Will they retain the same rear boom operator's position, or are they going to the remote refueling station up in the front of the aircraft?

I didn't know any such thing existed until I went hunting the web for the KC-10 photo and came across the website kc-10.net.

I read an article there on the KDC-10 that was built for Royal Netherlands Air Force. I thought it was interesting to use IR cameras on the boom to aid in sticking in the probe.

[Paleo Conservative]

Will they retain the same rear boom operator's position, or are they going to the remote refueling station up in the front of the aircraft?

I don't know, but I doubt it. The cockpit change is being done to give them a glass cockpit that is similar to other military transports so pilots can make an easier transition to them. It cuts labor costs by eliminating the flight engineer, and it also cuts maintenance costs by eliminating mechanical gages and replacing them with interchangeable video displays.