Originally Posted by
GordonR_Cape
If brand A sells an aircraft at a capital cost of X, and brand B sells a similar model for 10-20% cheaper, would that account for higher sales, even though the brand A model is "an overall better aircraft"? That seems to be what the comment suggests, not the raw number of sales.
By the same logic, the B737 sells more aircraft at less than half the price of the B787. Oh wait...
Sorry Gordon, but your post is almost a non-sequitur (and I notice your post altered what I quoted in my post). Which aircraft is 'better' is a matter of opinion and debate based on a number of factors - seat mile costs, dispatch reliability and overall reliability, overall cost of ownership. In an era where the vast majority of ticket purchases are based on little more than price, the operators probably don't care that much that the A350 might be more comfortable for the passenger (I have little doubt the 787 passenger experience would be much better if most operators had kept it at the 8 across seating it was really designed for, but then you have to go back to that part about purchase decisions being based on price). BTW, do you have a source for your claim that the 787 sells for 10-20% less than the comparable A350?
What I specifically was responding to was this:
It appears A350 sales are starting to accelerate
which is demonstrably false. In fact, net announced orders for the A350 so far in 2019 are negative (-4 to be specific) while Boeing shows 38 net orders for the 787 so far in 2019. Despite the continued trashing of the 787 by some posters on this form, it's clear that the operators are in fact rather happy with the aircraft and ordering more - to the extent it's outsold the A350 by a factor of 3 to 1 over the last 30 months.
BTW, regarding that AlJazeera report, scuttlebutt at the time was that the employee interviews in South Carolina were a hit job orchestrated by the Seattle area machinist union to discredit the non-union workers (several Seattle area machinists were sent to South Carolina to teach the local workers how to do the job, and hence were able to point AlJazeera at disgruntled workers to get the desired story).