777-9X Leads Boeing Price List at $400 Million

Last July when Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) released its price list for the next 12 months, prices increased across the board by 2.9%, and the most expensive commercial jet on that price list is the 777-9X, which carries a list price of $400 million.

The new 777X family, the 9X and its smaller sibling the 8X, are currently expected to go into production sometime in 2018, with first delivery to customers not due until 2020. Until then the current versions of the 777, particularly the 777-300ER, priced at $339.6 million, remains critical to Boeing’s planned revenues and cash flows.

The company may be able to advance its schedule on the 777X in the same way that it recently said that it may deliver the first 737 MAX as much as six months early.

The most expensive commercial plane on the market is the superjumbo Airbus A380-800, which has a list price of $432.6 million as of the new Airbus price list issued last month. The closest competitor Boeing has to that plane in terms of passenger capacity is the 747-8, which now carries a list price of $378.5 million. The A380 can carry as many as 555 passengers, nearly 90 more than the 747-8. New orders for the 747, either as a passenger jet or a freighter, have not materialized and the company recently cut the plane’s production rate to just 0.5 planes per month.
[recirclink id=313304]
Among dual-aisle, twin-engine planes that are currently being manufactured, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner carries a list price of $264.6 million, where the Airbus A350-800 costs $272.4 million and the A350-900 costs $308.1 million. The first A350-900 was delivered to Qatar Airways in December, while there are 80 Boeing 787-9s already flying. Deliveries of the 787-9 have overtaken deliveries of the smaller and less expensive ($224.6) 787-8, a plus for Boeing’s cash flow.

Boeing’s 787-10 is priced at $306.1 million and has capacity for 330 passengers in a two-class configuration. Airbus competes with its A330-900neo, which will seat 310 passengers in a standard two-class arrangement and costs an average of $287.7 million. Both planes have yet to be delivered, although Boeing has begun transitioning the 787-10 from the detailed design stage to the manufacturing and assembly stage ahead of a schedule that has the plane making its first flight next year and entering into service in 2018. The first of the Airbus A330neo models is expected to be delivered to customers late in 2017.