Originally Posted by
Torquelink
And one engine option rather than two: airlines like the choice on the A320 but most investors / lessors like the fact that all 738s are broadly similar: great help in remarketing.
Loving how y’all equivocate about why and how 738 kicks the tail off 320ceo. Big picture... it’s a slightly bigger plane (from a seating perspective) with better economics and more range. To compete, the 320ceo was sold very cheaply, although the opposite is true of the maintenance and parts which are quite expensive. To add insult to injury, the 737NG is produced at less cost than 320, so the margins are much higher from sales.
This is why Airbus jumped at launching NEO, arguably prematurely because production started so much later. Airbus forced a response from Boeing, which we now know as the MAX disaster. Perhaps Boeing would have been better off going straight to NSA, but that’s 20/20 hindsight. We would be singing a different tune had the MCAS nightmare not occurred. Cost cutting caught up with Boeing, and now the advantage is to Airbus, at least in the narrowbody market.
The MAX will fly again and the sales will occur. The problem is the lost market share, especially to A321. If it were up to me, Boeing would launch NMA ASAP to counter A321NEO and NSA shortly thereafter. It’s going to cost a lot of money, but Boeing has painted itself into a corner with its corporate greed. Shame on Boeing!!!