Boeing's new baby comes looking for a sale

By CHRIS DANIELS AVIATION WRITER

The multibillion-dollar battle between plane makers Boeing and Airbus arrived in Auckland over the weekend, with the touchdown of Boeing's latest plane, the 777-300ER.

Air NZ, despite recently committing itself to spending at least $150 million upgrading its eight Boeing 747-400 aircraft, will be in the market for new long-haul planes in the next few years.

And the world's only big commercial jet makers, Airbus and Boeing, are hot on the case.

While ostensibly here on long-range flight testing, Boeing wasted no opportunity in using the presence of its new plane to gain publicity, in the hope Air New Zealand would decide to buy one.

With a sticker price of up to $US200 million per plane, the plane makers do not waste any opportunity to talk up their products.

And Boeing knows that Air NZ - at the start of this year one of the few big "Boeing only" airlines - has now embraced its European rival Airbus, choosing to buy 15 Airbus A320s, a 146-seat aircraft to fly the Tasman.

Boeing's regional manager of product marketing, Bruce Nicoletti, said the new plane could easily replace any of Air NZ's 747-400 jets, flying the same routes at nearly the same speed and with slightly fewer passengers.

Air NZ engineers and pilots were shown around the new Boeing 777-300ER (the ER means "Extended Range") while it was in Auckland on its long-range testing world tour.

One other test aircraft is involved in ultra long distance flights, including one non-stop flight from Sydney to Recife in Brazil. On some of these test flights, technicians turn off one of the engines for extended periods.

Tanks of water are onboard, designed to simulate the weight of people and cargo. Rows of computer monitors allow engineers and technicians to monitor the aircraft.

Boeing says the 777-300ER, which will be delivered to its first airline customers next April, is a vastly superior plane to its competition. Its two engines mean it uses less fuel and it can carry more people and more cargo further. It also has a bigger and wider fuselage, which makes for a roomier cabin.

However, Airbus recently published a presentation saying that planes with four engines are "inherently better for operation over remote areas".

The opposition, which is favouring four-engine planes, in particular the Airbus A340, says that the Pacific Ocean, is a "severe operating area" suited for planes with four, not two engines. It claims its A340 four-engine planes have the capability to operate on the world's longest routes.

Arguments about how far a twin-engined plane should be allowed to fly from "diversion airports" in case of engine failure are often used to promote four-engined planes over their twin-engined competition.

Boeing says that most aircraft diversions are due to medical emergencies on board the plane, rather than engine failure. It says that with four engines, there is simply twice as much equipment to have a fault.

Many of the world's airlines are moving towards ultra-long, non-stop, point to point flights. In February, Singapore Airlines is due to start flying non-stop between Singapore and Los Angeles, with a Singapore-New York direct flight also planned.

The LA-Singapore leg is expected to take 18.5 hours, the longest commercial flight in the world. The endurance of passengers and crew, not the engines and airframe, is now increasingly becoming the major limitation on the duration of super-long haul flights.

Boeing's next plane to come off the production line, the 777-200LR (Long Range), will be able to fly direct from Auckland to New York, or Johannesburg, though with fewer passengers than the latest 777-300ER can carry.

Passenger comfort and entertainment is becoming a big selling point for airlines, with fierce competition over which carrier offers the best in-flight features.

Newcomer to New Zealand skies, Emirates, is introducing new entertainment packages on its Airbus A340-500 planes from next month. The new system features 100 movies and 50 TV channels on demand, 350-plus audio channels and 40 games.

New in-flight internet systems will soon provide broadband access and live television being broadcast to passenger screens.