Jan 27, 2021 Boeing took a pre-tax charge of $6.5bn for the 777X program. “We now anticipate that the first 777X delivery will occur in late 2023,” Calhoun said in a message to employees. A Boeing 777X airliner taxis alongside the runway in preparation for its first flight on January 25, 2020, in Everett, Washington. Cathay Pacific has ordered 21 of the new long-haul jets, though. Boeing’s 777X aircraft will be keeping the 777 family going for at least another generation. Photo: Boeing All confirmed. This news was announced on the same day as Boeing shared that it will slow the production rate of the plane amid the downturn in activity this year. November 2013: Boeing launches the 777X, with first delivery planned for an unspecified part of 2020. March 2016: Boeing is rumored to be trying to accelerate first delivery from planned 2020 to 2019. October 2019: Due to GE's engine issues, first delivery pushed back from what had previously been summer of 2020 to the 1st half of 2021.

Boeing wants incentives from both its home state and its employees for its just announced 777X project. Due to workers not agreeing to cuts in benefits, assembly will likely be done elsewhere, possibly even outside the US. Everett, Renton, and the entire state of Washington have helped build Boeing into the mighty global corporation they are today. Now in order to save some money, Boeing is considering moving to other states or even other countries for 777X assembly.

I found this article in the New York Times, and due to the focus being on the assembly of the next generation of the Boeing 777 (the so-called 777X), I found it intriguing. There already is an assembly line for the 787 in South Carolina. Some proposals to keep 777X work in Washington, but due to recent events, that may no longer happen.

There is much more to this situation than is featured in the article, or in my comments, but even this limited scope is rather provocative.

Excerpts from the article:

The full column is linked above, and some excerpts are quoted below.

Boeing 777x Pictures

Compensation for assembly workers decreases:

What Boeing wants is very simple: to pay the people who make its airplanes as little money as it can get away with. It needs to do this, we’re told, to stay competitive. It has all the leverage, because enough states — and countries — are willing to give it everything it asks for. Who wouldn’t want a gleaming factory stuffed with jet assemblers, a payroll guaranteed for a generation?

Good work if you can get it, but pay cuts are always difficult to swallow

The machinists didn’t ask for hefty pay raises or new benefits as a condition to keep the much-promoted 777X production in this region. They just wanted to preserve what they had — jobs that could pay up upward of $80,000 a year, with a guaranteed pension.

Despite multiple issues such as 787 problems, CEO compensation grows

Boeing is on a roll, its stock at a record high despite the troubled rollout of its 787 Dreamliner, and the pay of its C.E.O. boosted 20 percent to a package totaling $27.5 million last year. It is not impelled, as the auto industry was five years ago, in the midst of bailouts and cutbacks. Boeing could afford to be generous, or at least not onerous.

Boeing will likely leave their home state in search of cheaper labor costs:

In the wake of the machinists’ rebellion, Boeing is likely to move. “We’re left with no choice but to open the process competitively and pursue all options for the 777X,” said Boeing’s commercial airplanes C.E.O., Ray Conner, after the vote.

Washington offered incentives to keep Boeing assembly in state

The state agreed to subsidize Boeing to the tune of $500 million a year over 16 years. That’s twice what the state gives to the University of Washington, the region’s flagship college, long an elevator to the middle class.

More information on the initial orders for the 777X at the Dubai Air Show is here. Also, more details on some other options for assembly of the 777X including locations outside the US.

What are your thoughts?

Many of the 787 Dreamliner’s issues could be linked to the countless contractors for components being sourced from all over. Would you feel safe flying on an airplane assembled by less experienced workers? What about outside the current most common aircraft manufacturers in North America, Western Europe and Brazil?

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This story is part of our coverage of the 25th anniversary of the Boeing 777’s entry into service, which happened on June 7, 1995. It was originally published on January 30, 2020, and has been lightly edited from the original.

“Do you know what they call the Boeing 777 over at Air France?” said Yves Galland, former CEO of Boeing France, in an interview. “Cash machine.”

It’s a cash machine for Boeing, too, which has sold more than 2,000 of the various 777 models since the 1990s. That makes the “Triple Seven” the most popular wide-body aircraft of all time — an even better seller than the venerable Queen of the Skies, the Boeing 747, despite having been in airline service for half as long.

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The 777 now comes in a new form: the 777X, which flew for the first time in January 2020, becoming the largest twin-engine airplane ever to fly. You can expect to see it flying passengers this year, with Emirates. The newest 777 will be easy to spot around airports, thanks to its unique folding wingtips, a first in commercial aviation. Less visible but equally important are the wings made from composite materials and more efficient (and huge) General Electric engines, both instrumental in making the plane cheaper to fly than the current 777-300ER model.

“777X” is what Boeing calls the plane, but it comes in two variants that will be sold as the 777-9 and smaller 777-8. Only the 777-9 has been built so far.

What else is new about Boeing’s latest offering? Let’s have a look.

Related: Boeing’s 777X completes its maiden flight

The 777 was Boeing’s first fly-by-wire aircraft, meaning computers read the pilots’ inputs and translate them to movement of the flight-control surfaces — an innovation pioneered in commercial aviation by the Airbus A320 in the 1980s. The first 777 took to the air in 1994, and it has since become a mainstay of airlines on every continent. You can find it doing domestic runs in Japan with 500 passengers in high-density seating, or shuttling between London and New York with American Airlines and British Airways, or doing 16-hour ultra-long-haul flights.

It’s an extremely versatile airplane, which is why it’s been so successful. It may not be as loved as the 747, but you have a very good chance of finding yourself on one: the three major legacy airlines in the U.S. all flew it at one time or another. Delta retired its 777 fleet in October 2020 because of the coronavirus-related drop in demand.

Your packages also probably ride in a 777, as FedEx flies the cargo-only version. More than 1,600 had been delivered as of December. About half are the 777-300ER model.

Related: Flight review: EVA Air Boeing 777 in business class from Houston to Taipei

Cash machine or not, though, Boeing is engaged in an epic battle with Airbus, and had to come up with a response when its rival launched the A350-1000. The European plane is of similar size to the 777-300ER, but gives airlines better economics. The cornerstone of Delta’s long-haul fleet is now the A350-900.

“Boeing had to replace the 777-300ER in response to the plane, which is more than 20% more economical,” said Scott Hamilton, an industry expert and editor of Leeham News, in an email.

Video: Boeing 737 Max will return to skies with paying US passengers Tuesday (NBC News)

Boeing 737 Max will return to skies with paying US passengers Tuesday

Enter the 777X.

Excerpts from the article:

Boeing 777x Pictures

What are your thoughts?

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777X, aka the

Boeing 777x Cost