Airline chiefs interested in new Boeing jet

LONDON (Reuters) - Leading airlines have backed a Boeing plan to build a radical high-speed airliner, but said there was also room for Airbus Industrie's A380 superjumbo.

"We are excited that Boeing has taken on this challenge," James Goodwin, chairman and CEO of UAL Corp, which owns United Airlines, said yesterday.

Boeing announced on Friday it would shelve the 747X, a touted rival to the giant A380, to focus on the new fast airliner.

"The Boeing decision to abandon the 747X only reinforces our belief that we can sell 750 A380 planes between now and 2019," Philippe Camus, one EADS's two chief executives, told Reuters in an interview.

But analysts pounced on the prospect of Boeing's fast plane fleecing the A380 of its business class, despite Airbus proposing that the superjumbo would have spacious facilities.

"The business passenger will be given a choice of flying in a very large aircraft with amenities or getting to the destination hours quicker," said Tim Coombs, managing director at consultancy Aviation Economics.

"If you are a carrier like British Airways, catering to the high-margin customer, this Boeing product will look quite attractive."

Goodwin said: "We believe there is a market for both."

While the abandonment of the 747X is a major retreat by Boeing that leaves the A380 with a monopoly, the eye- catching new plane, the Sonic Cruiser, is still only a vaguely defined proposal.

Boeing has not yet even determined its size.

Throwing away the standard airliner configuration that Boeing itself developed after World War II, the Sonic Cruiser would have a strange aft-mounted wing: a triangle with extensions sticking straight out.

This "cranked delta" configuration has previously been seen on fighters, such as the Saab Draken of the 1950s, but the Sonic Cruiser would also have little forward wings (canards).

It would fly at 95 percent of the speed of sound (mach .95), which is about 15 percent faster than conventional commercial planes but still less than half as fast as the Concorde.

Flying above conventional jets, the Sonic Cruiser would also encounter little traffic congestion.

British Airways seems a prime candidate for the plane. The big UK carrier strongly emphasises businessclass passengers and, as an enthusiastic Concorde operator, would have little hesitation in adopting an unconventional aircraft.

The Sonic Cruiser has attracted the attention of A380 buyer Singapore Airlines, one of the world's most influential carriers.

"We do have an interest," said the airline's Chief Executive, Cheong Choong Kong. "In fact, we have seen what Boeing announced before the announcement."

"We told them: 'Let's talk about it further'."

A mach .95 aircraft could slice two hours off the 13-hour trans-eurasian flights that account for much of Singapore Airlines' business.

Moreover, Boeing reckons the aircraft could have a range of 16,700 km (9,000 nautical miles), raising the prospect of direct flights from Southeast Asia to the United States and maybe even London to Australia, a route that currently requires a refueling stop.

"Air Canada would definitely line up in the extremely interested prospective customer category," said the airline's chief executive Robert Milton.

EADS's Camus played down the advantage of mach .95.

"With the Concorde, the difference in speed was significant but with the Boeing plane the gain is negligible and could be eaten up by delays," he said.

Airbus's other shareholder, British defence contractor BAE Systems Plc said the Boeing decision was no surprise.

"A number of us have looked at it," chairman Richard Evans said. "We've looked at it. Boeing have looked at it."

- REUTERS

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