Boeing Enjoys Sales Spike

Boeing, the commercial aircraft manufacturer that sustained several big blows from its European rival ? Airbus ? from 2000-2000 is now enjoying the sweet smell of victory. After an excellent year, the Seattle-based company reported record sales and a majority slice of the anticipated doubling of the commercial aviation market in the next 20 years. Boeing forecasts this trend will require a worldwide market of 27,000 new planes, costing $2.6 trillion. Boeing exported $14 billion worth of commercial aircraft in 2006 and expects to prosper in the Chinese and Indian markets. Boeing projects that over the next 20 years, in addition to the 367 orders yet to be delivered to the two countries, China will need 2,900 new passenger and freight aircraft costing $280 billion, and India will need 856, worth $72 billion. For the past four years, close to 20 percent of Boeing's orders have been from China, which since 1972 has bought 678 Boeing planes worth $37 billion.

Boeing reportedly invested $8 billion in developing the midsize wide-body 290-seat 787 Dreamliner, the first of which will be delivered in 2008. Boeing's bet is that the market favors point-to-point flights rather than a hub-and-spoke system with larger planes delivering passengers to a few large cities, from which they are dispersed to their destinations in smaller planes. With 471 orders and commitments for 787s, at up to $180 million apiece, the jet (made largely of a light, fuel-saving carbon composite material) already is a notable success. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the manufacturer also added some 13,000 of the 40,000 eliminated jobs and raised Boeing's stock price from $25 to $88 a share.