Mixed Messages On Future 150-seat Market

摘要

New aircraft offer an opportunity not only to cut fuel costs and environmental damage, but they also introduce much lower through-life support costs than fleets designed in the 1970s. In the U.S. domestic market, there are still thousands of short-haul airliners that are showing their age, such as Boeing 737s and MD-80s. Elsewhere, these 130- to 150-seat aircraft have largely been replaced by newer model 737s and Airbus A320s, but now even these highly popular types, which dominate current sales and production, are facing competition as new powerplants and the advance of composite primary structures start to change the game.