Boeing and Airbus each heeded signs of a recovering airline market this month with announcements of new plans for production-rate increases. In fact, Boeing committed to a new time frame for 777 and 747 rate hikes only 10 days after Boeing Commercial Airplanes president Jim Albaugh told analysts at the JPMorgan Aviation, Transportation and Defense Conference on March 9 that the company wouldn’t render a decision on the 777 until next month. Albaugh’s comments came on the same day Airbus announced it will increase the monthly production rate for its single-aisle
A320 family by two airplanes starting in December.
Boeing previously planned to start increasing 777 production from five airplanes per month to seven in early 2012; now it plans to begin by the middle of next year. The 747 program’s planned production rate increase from 1.5 to two airplanes per month will move from mid-2013 to mid-2012.
