Posted on 07/18/2005 7:31:29 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
SEATTLE, July 18, 2005 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today officially launched the 737-900ER (Extended Range) -- the newest member of the world's best-selling Next-Generation 737 family -- following the completion of a sales agreement for up to 60 of the airplanes from Lion Air.
The 737-900ER, formerly known as the 737-900X, will carry more passengers and fly farther, increasing the capability of the Next-Generation 737 airplane family.
Lion Air, Indonesia's first low-cost carrier, originally announced its intent to order up to 60 737s earlier this year. Today's firm order is for 30 of the new derivative airplane, with purchase rights for 30 additional models. The order is worth $3.9 billion at list prices.
The first 737-900ER is scheduled for delivery in the first half of 2007.
"The Next-Generation 737 is the most efficient single-aisle airplane family today, and we are thrilled to have Lion Air as the launch customer to increase the 737 family's capability with the additional range and seating of the 737-900ER," said Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "In addition to the unprecedented economic advantages, the 737-900ER shares the same industry-leading reliability of the world's most successful airplane family."
The 737-900ER is the same size as today's 737-900, but, with the addition of a pair of exit doors and a flat rear pressure bulkhead, will carry 26 additional passengers, raising the maximum capacity from 189 to 215 in a single-class layout.
Aerodynamic and structural design changes, including strengthened wings, a two-position tailskid, enhancements to the leading and trailing edge flap systems, and optional Blended Winglets and auxiliary fuel tanks, will allow the 737-900ER to accommodate higher takeoff weights and increase its range to 3,200 nautical miles (5,900 km), making it comparable to the 737-800's range.
"We are delighted to be the launch customer for the 737-900ER," said President Director Rusdi Kirana of Lion Air. "We are confident that the outstanding economics and reliability of the aircraft will contribute to the expansion and modernization of our fleet."
Powered by the CFM International CFM56-7B turbofan engines, the new derivative will have substantial economic advantages over competing models including 9 percent lower operating costs per trip and 7 percent lower operating costs per seat than the A321, which is more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kg) heavier than the 737-900ER.
The Next-Generation 737s are 10 years newer and fly higher, faster, farther and more quietly than competing models. To date, 86 airlines have placed orders for more than 2,700 Next-Generation 737s.
For more information about the 737-900ER, visit the Web site.
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Contacts: Sandy Angers, 737 Programs Communications, 425-965-9380 (office), 206-851-7974 (cellular), sandra.l.angers@boeing.com
Linda Lee, Sales Communications, 206-766-2905 (office), 206-331-8298 (cellular), linda.a.lee@boeing.com
ping
It's a shame they did away with the 757 and decided to stretch the 737.
Why don't they just revive and juice-up the 757?
Seat width and size are totally up to each airline, no the manufacturer.
I thought the same thing. Too bad they can't fly this thing in that config here... only in Asia. I'm 6'4"
Why don't they just revive and juice-up the 757?
Boeing actually did float around the idea of a "757NG" but obviously the airlines said "no thanks".
Also, the 737-900ER really isn't a replacement for the 757 but more a competitor to the A321.
Actually, I wouldn't put it above Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines to both place substantial orders for the 737-900ER. That means Alaska Airlines can fly more passengers on longer USA transcon routes and Southwest can use them on nonstops between USA West Coast cites (Seattle, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix) US East Coast cities (Providence, Islip, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale).
The 757 is too heavy for most routes, and it has a different cockpit than the 737NG's. If you don't need the range of a 757 to cross the Atlantic, a 737-900ER has enough range to cross North America while being lighter.
Continental is taking its 757-200's off of domestic routes and putting them on transatlantic routes from the east coast especially from Newark. They are replacing their 757-200's on domestic routes with a combination of 737-800's and 757-300's.
Perhaps Southwest wants to be able to compete against JetBlue for the transcon market. The 737-900ER should have advantages for Southwest compared to JetBlue's A320's. The 737-900ER carries more passengers and will be able to perform transcon service year round without technical stops to refuel. JetBlue sometimes has to refuel on their transcon flights. The 737-900ER should also have better performance at hot and high airports like LAX, Phoenix, Denver, etc. than the A320.
I wonder if Continental will pickup some 757-200's from some of the European charter airlines that switch to the 737-900ER?
If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail not by posting to this thread.
Lion needs them, they fly some really crappy MD80's.
757 also has different avionics, much different composite stucture and all that.
Hey, I pinged you to a thread I did today, classic airliners in the boneyard...
Which means it wouldn't appeal to a low cost carrier with an all 737 fleet. With a different cockpit and avionics, it would be necessary to have different pools of pilots to fly them. By having a longer ranged variant of the 737-900, an airline can expand services while maintaining compatibilty with other 737's in its fleet and minimizing additional maintenance costs associated with adding a different aircraft type to the fleet.
My airline announced Hawaii service last week in our old 757's. We are ETOP'sing them and will be flying to 4 destinations in Hawaii!
How much work does it take to upgrade an existing plane to ETOPS standards? I know there's a lot more paper work to maintain. Will they have to modify the hardware?
Its my former airline, but I have retiree flight bennies. Its about 6-8 months or more of simulated ETOPS180 flights, and then you have to put in a backup APU I believe, rafts, training, etc.
We got halfway through ETOPS twice back in the ugly bankruptcy days, money down the drain. Technically speaking, we could ETOP our A319's, but no one has ever done that, it has the same range as the 737-700, and Aloha runs those to the mainland.
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