Aircraft
Boeing Announces Potential 717 Sales
Boeing Commercial Airplane’s Long Beach, Calif.

Boeing Commercial Airplane’s Long Beach, Calif. site vice president and general manager, Pat McKenna, told ERA attendees that two prospective customers could sign deals for 10 to 15 Boeing 717s, and another pair of airlines could commit to “two or three” each before the end of the year. The latter likely includes two 717-200s covered by an order from Turkmenistan Airlines announced 10 days after McKenna’s remarks and possibly a similar quantity for a Germanwings contract that Boeing had yet to close by the middle of last month.

The company will pursue European sales campaigns next year that could involve as many as 30 aircraft, said McKenna. He explained that the current backlog of 33 airplanes would accommodate “two or three years’ production, or a little more,” but claimed the build rate would fall below one per month. Boeing projects demand for around one thousand 100-passenger jetliners in the next 10 years and up to 2,500 by 2023.