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Boeing Enjoys Sales
Spike
Boeing, the commercial
aircraft manufacturer that sustained several
big blows from its European rival ' Airbus
' from 2000-2000 is now enjoying the sweet
smell of victory. After an excellent year,
the Seattle-based company reported record
sales and a majority slice of the anticipated
doubling of the commercial aviation market
in the next 20 years. Boeing forecasts this
trend will require a worldwide market of
27,000 new planes, costing $2.6 trillion.
Boeing exported $14 billion worth of commercial
aircraft in 2006 and expects to prosper
in the Chinese and Indian markets. Boeing
projects that over the next 20 years, in
addition to the 367 orders yet to be delivered
to the two countries, China will need 2,900
new passenger and freight aircraft costing
$280 billion, and India will need 856, worth
$72 billion. For the past four years, close
to 20 percent of Boeing's orders have been
from China, which since 1972 has bought
678 Boeing planes worth $37 billion.
Boeing reportedly invested
$8 billion in developing the midsize wide-body
290-seat 787 Dreamliner, the first of which
will be delivered in 2008. Boeing's bet
is that the market favors point-to-point
flights rather than a hub-and-spoke system
with larger planes delivering passengers
to a few large cities, from which they are
dispersed to their destinations in smaller
planes. With 471 orders and commitments
for 787s, at up to $180 million apiece,
the jet (made largely of a light, fuel-saving
carbon composite material) already is a
notable success. Since the Sept. 11 attacks,
the manufacturer also added some 13,000
of the 40,000 eliminated jobs and raised
Boeing's stock price from $25 to $88 a share.
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