Boeing Dreamliner Takes Another Punch

The A350 is more directly a competitor for Boeing’s 777, and the new A350-1000 is poaching sales from Boeing. Last week’s announcement of a new version of Boeing’s 777 — called mysteriously enough the 777X — is aimed directly at the A350-1000. Both British Airways and Air Lease Corp. (NYSE: AL) have ordered several of the new A350s as replacements for the 777.

Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways’ CEO, also said that the airline has no plans to cancel further orders of the 787 and, in fact, may double its order from 30 to 60 of the Boeing jetliners. The airlines also may order more A380s, the Airbus answer to Boeing’s venerable 747.

Airbus has taken orders for 262 of the A380s, which carries a list price of $389.9 million each, compared with orders of 105 to 110 for Boeing’s latest 747-8. Last month Boeing said it would cut production of the 747 from 2 a month to 1.75 a month.