MD-11 - why did boeing stop production on the model after buying out MD

[shon7]

The MD-11 seemed and seems to be quite a popular aircraft. Some pilots I have talked to even contend that the MD was ahead of Boeing in advanced cockpit designs, technology and airplane building in genera. So why did Boeing stop production on the models? Couldn't they have made good profits by continuing production?

[PAXboy]

This is a reply from someone who has been involved in many areas of commerce but not the airline world.

When a company buys out it's competitor it is for one of two reasons.

1) The competitor product is better but less commercially successful. This is a faster way to build your product quality than attempt to do it all yourself.

2) It is to eradicate a competitor and take over their customers for both sales and maintenance.

Sometimes, the buying company thinks that their product is superior to the one being bought and nothing can be done to convince them otherwise. "We've been brewing beer like this for 100 years." sort of thinking.

Sometimes, they combine the best of both worlds. We are being told by the PR teams that this is happening on the HP and Compaq merger. Time will tell.

Sometimes, it is simpler and cheaper and faster to just cut out the old products - even if they have benefits. The cost of integrating ideas and systems from different machines can be very time consuming and not always a success.

Now I make a guess: The MD-11 competed with the 777 and, in some markets the 767-ER. Given that MD went out of business due to the high competition in the market, it would not be sensible to have two such over-lapping products.

Also, if you delete a whole production line, you save a VERY great deal of money in terms of staff wages and real estate. This can be one of the main ways in which such take overs are financed.

I suggest that the Boeing thinking would have incorporated some of the above, as well as others. Bear in mind that they kept the 'baby' twin from MD and it is now the 717.

I sit to be corrected.

[Jet II]

The MD11 is an excellent aircraft, however there were 2 things that mitigated its sucess.

1 - its a MD
2 - its got 3 engines.

just as the MD11 came on line MD got in the **** and everyone else got into ETOPS aircraft.

:D

[The Claw]

Minimum Delay 11 hours!

Great looking aircraft with loads of problems. In my opinion the root cause for the downfall of a couple of airlines. Can't speak for the Cargo guys who seem to have had more success, but the PAX version was a nightmare. :(

[Hand Solo]

To put it simply the MD11 couldn't compete with the big twins, mainly because of direct operating costs, but also because the big competitors (and Boeing was chief offender here) offered their products at loss leading prices, knowing fine well that they'd make up the profit by hiking the prices up on different aircraft types in the same deal. The MD 11 still remains the most competitive freighter available with operating costs far lower than the 747 freight variants. Thats why companys such as FedEx are desperate to acquire as many as they can, and were even prepared to participate in the MD10 program to update old DC10s to the MD11 flight deck standard.

[Holer Moler]

Can only assume that the guys who posted negative MD11 dits have never flown a three or 4 Engined aircraft. It is only time before an ETOPs A/C drops in the ocean big style, nearly happened last year (larges).

The DC10-30/MD 11 is still the most popular A/C for cargo carriers and will be around for many years to come.

Bring back Flight Engineers.

[The Claw]

I was actually refering to those who changed to the MD-11, after successfully using the B747. A couple of MD-11's have "dropped big style". One of the Worlds leading cargo carriers still prefers the good old B747.

If it ain't a Boeing, I ain't going............... :D