WCA September 2011

From the americas

Statue of Liberty Image from BigStockPhoto.com Photographer: Marty

Boeing’s European rival Airbus is expected to have its competitor to the 787, the A350, ready to enter service with Qatar Airways in 2013. Airbus has gathered nearly 600 orders for the new jetliner, which also is made mainly of carbon-fibre polymers. Elsewhere in aviation . . . ❖ Expanding its reach into the growing Chinese travel market, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines said on 1 st July that it had started non-stop flights between Detroit and Beijing. The Detroit-Beijing flight will run five days a week on 269-seat Boeing 777 jets. Delta was already flying non-stop from Detroit to Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The Boeing Dreamliner

The world’s first composite-plastic jet arrives in Japan to a warm welcome and very high expectations “It’s been a long wait,” said Hidetaka Sakai, who watched the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” touch down at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. “We want to compete with global air companies with this plane.” (Bloomberg News, 3 rd July). The All Nippon Airways Co spokesman had sounded the two main themes of the company’s relationship with Chicago-based Boeing: the three-year delay since the plane maker missed its original May 2008 delivery target, and ANA’s conviction – evidenced by the exuberant celebration on the tarmac – that “this plane” was worth the wait. With 55 Dreamliners on order, the Tokyo-based carrier hopes to take delivery of the first one in August or September. ANA is counting on the twin-engine 787 to justify adding flights to China, Europe, and the US, even as the plane’s lighter weight and its expected greater fuel efficiency help to spare costs. The sense of urgency is understandable. ANA, Asia’s largest listed airline by sales, suffered a 20% drop in domestic travel in April, the month after air service in Japan was disrupted by the earthquake and tsunami. Demand for air travel has not yet rebounded. From Tokyo, Bloomberg reporter Chris Cooper described the busy week awaiting both sets of celebrants. Crews from Boeing would begin tests for extended operations and function and reliability as they worked toward flight certification by US and Japanese authorities. Boeing and ANA planned joint tests, with flights between Tokyo’s Haneda and Osaka’s Itami and Kansai airports, as well as Okayama and Hiroshima. According to Boeing’s website the companies scripted the trials to the half-hour in meetings that ran seven hours a day for five days. As noted by Bloomberg News, the intensive week in Japan would be one of the final validations for the 787’s planned entry into service. For Boeing, getting its fastest-selling plane in play in the third quarter would end a series of seven postponements that led to late penalties and a stock slide, through 30 th June, almost twice that of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The company could finally begin to see some return on a model with an average list price of $202 million. ❖ The 787 is the first airliner with a fuselage and wings made of composite-plastic materials instead of aluminium, making it lighter and 20% more fuel-efficient than other mid-sized airliners, according to Boeing. The company marketed the 210- to 250-seat plane for long-haul routes not busy enough to fill a larger aircraft. Boeing suppliers around the world build whole sections and fly them to the company’s operations in Everett, Washington, where the planes are assembled. ❖ Boeing has taken orders for 835 Dreamliners. The Australian carrier Qantas Airways is in the queue. And Japan Airlines Co, with 35 of the 787s on order, has said it will start Dreamliner service from Tokyo to Boston next year. This would be the first direct link between that American city and Asia.

Automotive

“Doctor Z” of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz has developed a marked partiality for China

“Dr Zetsche’s address resembled a United Nations Security Council roll call at times, with China, India, Russia, Germany, and, obligingly, the United States, receiving mentions. But some garnered more attention than others.” The reporter is Jonathan Schultz, who writes the “Wheels” blog in the New York Times . The speaker was, of course, Dieter Zetsche, CEO and chairman of the management board at Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz. The event was a gathering of journalists in Manhattan on the first day of spring to hear “Doctor Z” expound the product strategy for his luxury marque. (“In New York, Dieter Zetsche Delivers a China-Centric Prospectus for Mercedes-Benz,” 21 st June). Dr Zetsche said that in China, where his German company is opening dealerships at a rate of one a week, long- wheelbase E-Class sedans are used widely as limousines by the executive class. Acknowledging the existence of non-Chinese markets, he commented that the more substantial S-Class would be preferred by Westerners; then it was quickly back to those who “garner more attention than others.” Dr Zetsche expects new-vehicle sales in China to exceed those in the US and Germany, respectively, by 2015. To meet those projections, Mercedes will build an engine factory in China, the brand’s first passenger-car engine plant outside of Germany. Mr Schultz also took note of plans for marketing the F-Cell, a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle based on the Mercedes B-Class, in Germany and possibly Japan in 2014 – at the price of a diesel hybrid. While Mercedes does not currently produce a diesel-hybrid power train, volume-oriented European manufacturers like Peugeot-Citroën are preparing them. Mr Schultz wrote: “Given the don’t-ask price points and vague production prospects of other fuel-cell vehicles, like the Honda FCX Clarity, Dr Zetsche’s pledge was significant.” Currently, Daimler does not intend the F-Cell for the North American market. What little attention Dr Zetsche could

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2011