What Collins Tells Us About BBD - KuschKusch: "Rockwell Collins makes the avionics for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. Boeing has put in a bid to supply the US Air Force with 169 tankers based on the 767 airframe but with the 787's avionics flight deck. I am only mentioning this as it has an impact on whether Boeing will have the capacity to re-engine the 737 and thereby compete with the C-series. Airbus is also bidding on this contract."
Yeah, I read something about that. Collins gets a lot of the military, commercial and business jet avionics deals including some Airbus contracts and other articles have questioned the ability of Boeing, or Airbus to mount a response to C Series with so much currently on their plates.
In my view, C Series targets Embraer's 190/195 more than anything from the big boys. And it will probably be a successful enough airplane on that basis alone. However, Boeing and Airbus are right to be concerned because C Series could be, and likely will be stretched. That would make it as large as some of the smaller 737 and A320s.
Although as large as some of their smaller offerings, more fuel-efficient, with lower maintenance costs and better overall operational costs, C Series would still be at a distinct disadvantage since it offers little in the way of commonality with larger commercial jets.
Commonality, is something which enables airlines to keep costs low by keeping training and maintenance costs down. Commonality is a word used to describe the degree of similarity between aircraft in terms of operation. It costs less to train pilots to operate Boeing aircraft of varying sizes than it does to introduce a completely new aircraft from a different manufacturer.
This is an aspect of the business getting more emphasis in recent years with pressures in the airline industry to cut costs to remain competitive with low cost carriers. Most low cost carriers like Southwest, tend to operate fleets of a single aircraft type. For example, Southwest buys only 737s.
A recent exception to this trend was JetBlue's order to Embraer for 100 E190s with options for another 100.
If Bombardier decides to go ahead with stretching C Series, and I agree that seems likely, it would take at least a couple of years which would probably give Boeing and Airbus more time to respond.
However, this is a big market. Bombardier expects demand for nearly 6000 aircraft in this size category in the years ahead. C Series could eventually dominate this market, but it doesn't need to come anywhere near that to be successful.