Market will wait for B737 replacement: Boeing

Boeing confirmed it will develop an all-new replacement aircraft for the B737NG and will finish an evaluation on the future of its narrowbody aircraft programme by mid-2011 (Reuters/AINonline, 11-Feb-2011). A tentative outline of the specifications for a B737 replacement will be made known to Boeing customers in approximately 18 months.

Boeing: "We're going to do a new airplane. We're not done evaluating this whole situation yet, but our current bias is to not re-engine, [but] to move to an all-new airplane at the end of the decade or the beginning of the next decade. It's our judgment that our customers will wait for us rather than move to an airplane that will obsolete itself when [Airbus introduces] a new airplane," Jim McNerney, CEO. Source: AINonline, 11-Feb-2011.