Boeing - Good, Bad & Indifferent

Boeing - The Good, the Bad & the Indifferent!

The 787 is about to fly!  Boeing (BA - Analyst Report) hasn't said exactly when -- and probably won't, in order to prevent an onslaught of onlookers at Everett -- but soon.

United Airlines (UAUA - Analyst Report) is considering ordering over 200 new aircraft in the near future to rejuvenate its fleet, while International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC for short) plans to add as many as 50 more aircraft to its inventory in the next year or so.

Some think this indicates a turnaround for the entire commercial aircraft sector. The Market certainly seems to think so: A snapshot today of the 18-company Zacks Aerospace Index shows that it is up 71.83% from its 52-week low. Not too shabby!

The USAF Tanker contract is coming up for bid...all over again. The reactivation of the proposal effort -- which, according to Secretary Gates, had "gone badly awry" -- may be handled directly by the DoD (rather that USAF) in order to keep the proceedings from again going askew.

Further, there is the distinct possibility that Congress may tenaciously continue to back a split decision, whereby part of the production goes to Northrop Grumman (NOC - Analyst Report)/EADS and part goes to Boeing.  Secretary Gates is not in favor of such an approach, as he has opined that it would be cumbersome for the USAF to have two very different tanker aircraft to deal with.

However, that argument might be deemed specious, as the USAF currently has two tankers models in service: the KC-135 and the KC-10. On the other hand, two tankers might make twice as many congressmen and women happy...which would perhaps cause them to be even more generous with the Defense Budget.

Finally, it's been over a week since Boeing announced that it is at break-even so far this year when it comes to net orders for commercial aircraft: as of June 2nd, it had obtained 65 gross orders for new airplanes -- 42 737s, 10 777s and 13 787s -- and had also received 65 cancellations, consisting of 1 737, 1 747, 5 767s, 1 777 and 57 787s. It will be interesting to see what the next update reveals.