chipsbrand: with DL, NW, UA and AA - is there enough Boeing money to prop up everybody?
HP/US owe the 9/11 US Stabilisation fund $1bn between them so the amounts owed by the four abovenamed must be pretty serious.
As for pinhammonds' earlier treatise, a 737 successor is well overdue considering the NG is a third generation of the type when the 320 is still essentially first generation - in some ways its amazing that it still sells as well as it does! Southwest will also be shopping eventually.
However, Boeing's resurgence has not been without serious costs - the closure of the 757 and 717 lines, the death of 744 pax orders, the near end of the 767 line unless the tanker deal is rescued and problems ramping up 777 production combined with an impending move of the entire line. All this, the 787 and now the 797?
Furthermore, with Boeing pushing 737 MPA and AWACS variants they will probably want to maintain the 737 line for a while.
That said, Airbus are playing right into their hands politically. Look at how Boeing is going where the money is and the costs aren't - little if any sentiment to historical production sites. Chirac would never let an Airbus line open in Estonia or Poland or Slovakia if it meant moving production from 35-hr week France - which is why Eastern European airlines won't fall over themselves to buy Airbus as in the recent LOT affair. Even Air France are buying Boeing!
American should take note of BA's recent turnaround - get the debt down, the profits up, the credit rating sorted. Then you can go shopping for the aircraft you want rather than the ones Boeing and GE Capital will let you have.