I can’t help it. What a more appropriate post to follow-up our post on the closing price of oil today than this one.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has become the first person to buy a personal Airbus A380.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Alwaleed is the world’s 13th richest person, according to Forbes magazine, and Citigroup’s largest individual shareholder. (Yes, he has taken a bit of a bath with his shares there of late — to the tune of about $2.5 billion.)

A billion here. A billion there. Who’s counting? He already owns a personal Boeing 747-400.

The new aircraft has been dubbed “The Flying Palace.” No word on what he is paying, or any details on how the new jet will be outfitted.

As Todd Blackledge was heard to exclaim over yet another of his “Taste of the Town” adventures on ESPN’s Saturday Night Football recently, “Sweet Mercy!”

Technorati Tags: Airbus, Boeing

In a follow-up to my post from yesterday, here is what I think Southwest should have announced yesterday. That is, if the marketing foot had been in gear with the hand holding the excel charts.

Instead of the new “Business Select” and “Business” class monikers, Southwest should have gone with two main fare classes — “Gotta Get Away,” as they have done for the lower fares, but “Gotta Go Now” for their fully refundable price fares. Or “Gotta Get There Now” if the previous suggestion sounds too much like one of those commercials for an overactive bladder.

Anyway, there are a couple of potentials that could have been used.

My point is — Gotta Go Now, Gotta Get Away? Simple. Ties into the airline’s established marketing mindset. Makes the point. And no crappy “Business” fare tag for a product that is not any different from  the product sold as a “Gotta Get Away” fare — except that it is more expensive and refundable.

Then, they should have created the “A+ Boarding” option. A simple flat add-on fee for guaranteed “A” group boarding.

“Flying on a Gotta Go Now fare? Upgrade to the “A+” boarding option for (fill in the blank) and be assured of an “A” Group boarding pass.”

Marketing could have had a field day with this. Given out special little buttons. T-shirts. Given “A+” purchasers more drink coupons. I can see the commercials now.

In other words, the airline should have taken that “exclusive” group feeling that is there now and run with it. Taken advantage of it. It would have fed right in with the exclusive “clubby” “A” boarding group mentality that we “A” group boarders like to think we possess.

But does the term, “Business Select” lend itself to any of this? Not hardly. In addition, note to Southwest. Not all “A” group boarding nuts consider themselves to be “business travelers.” And you shouldn’t have made that assumption, or hung that moniker on them. It’s a mistake.

I have a lot of friends at Southwest Airlines. Some very dear friends. And the airline has done more positive things over the years than most. There is no question about that.

But the more I think about this announcement from yesterday, the more my head hurts. It makes things way too complicated and it takes the very guts out of their existing core marketing strength. It really makes me wonder if any of this decision was run by the great folks at GSD&M in Austin (they handle the airline’s advertising) beforehand. If it was, shame on GSD&M. If it wasn’t, shame on Southwest.

“Business Select?” Arrrrgh.

Technorati Tags: airline industry news, airlines, Southwest Airlines

As we said when Airbus was in the throes of its angst in regard to the A-380 delays — there was a good reason the guys at Boeing were not being too openly obnoxious about the ills of its competitor.

Today — the main reason reared its ugly head. Fact: new aircraft rarely meet original timetables for anything.

After assuring investors on the most recent earnings call that yes, the 787 was still going to roll out on schedule — despite was was becoming an ever-increasingly tight timeline — last month the company revised that estimate, saying that the first flight of the new bird had now been pushed back until at least October.

Today, Scott Carson, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said that Boeing’s new 787 jetliner will not begin flight testing until mid-November or mid-December, because it’s taking longer than anticipated to get the first plane ready.

For what it’s worth, Boeing also said that the 787 remains on track to deliver its first plane to ANA next May.

What’s the rush? I’d rather see Boeing take its time and do the flight-testing of the aircraft right — then with the now scheduled faster rate of flight testing the company now has on the books.

Technorati Tags: Airbus, airplanes, Boeing

Did anyone watch the official Boeing coming out party Sunday for the 787? I know a number of readers wrote me notes who had trouble with the internet feed from the Boeing site. I also had a couple of you wonder if ex-NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, who was moderating the event, might have had a bit too much champagne before he got onstage.

I didn’t watch the entire thing, but one thing I did note — the plane is a heckuva a lot better looking with its nose on. Those earlier shots that were taken a couple of weeks ago that were posted online and that we posted in PBB did not have the nose attached. Without the nose the airplane looked rather stubby — but with sexy wings. The plane looks a lot less stubby fully assembled — now  it has both sexy wings and a sexy nose.

Meanwhile, in the gossip category — how come former CEO Phil Condit was at the ceremony and Alan Mulally was not? James Wallace, the reporter with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who does such a great job covering the aerospace industry, said in an article today that Mulally was not invited.

For those of you who missed the official roll-out yesterday, (and I guess that includes Alan) here you go.

Ticker: (NYSE:BA)

I’m going to see this thing in person one of these days. Just not today.

But for those of you in Memphis, the lone AN-225 freighter is flying in today from Gostomel in the Ukraine. As of 4:30 CDT, the aircraft is now projected to land at about 5:15 CDT.

For those of you who have never seen this wonder of aviation, here’s a shot from the Paris Air Show this year. 

The huge Ukrainian transport plane, the largest airplane in the world, has a wingspan of nearly 300 feet – the length of a football field.

The Times Online in London is reporting US Airways is going to ditch a $3.7 billion Airbus order in favor of a competitive deal with Boeing.

And I quote, “The Times understands that US Airways will announce an order for between 20 and 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners within the next 48 hours. The deal will be worth between $3.2 billion and $4.9 billion at list prices.”

Makes sense to me. US Airways needs to replace aging aircraft sooner than later — and the A350WXB is still kind of a “work in progress” with no definite roll-out date, and, as Steve Hazy, head of uber-leasing company ILFC said in Phoenix at the recent ISTAT Conference, the airplane itself is still a work in progress.

This news comes after Boeing scored two nice additional orders for the aircraft this week — one from Virgin Atlantic, the other from Air Canada.



Virgin Atlantic said it will buy 15 787-9 jets valued at about $2.8 billion at list prices. Deliveries are to begin in 2011.

Virgin Atlantic’s order also included options on eight additional 787-9s and purchase rights on a further 20 planes. Virgin Atlantic said the total deal could be worth up to $8 billion.

Meanwhile, Air Canada said Tuesday that it had exercised options and purchase rights for an additional 23 787s, bringing its total orders for the aircraft to 37 from 14. The order for the 23 planes is worth about $3.5 billion at list prices.

Boeing officials reported Tuesday that the PlaneMaker now has 514 orders for its new 787 Dreamliner.

Company officials said Tuesday that Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL) ordered five more of the planes and said that additional orders from “unidentified customers” pushed the total past 500. JAL has now ordered 35 of the 787s.