Boeing To MAXimise Farnborough PR Potential

A Boeing 787 will be on display at next month’s Farnborough air show outside London, but perhaps more attention will revolve around a Boeing jet that can only be seen in artist concepts: The reengined 737 MAX. At issue is how much Boeing can close its gap with the Airbus A320NEO, which has won 1,425 firm orders, compared to 451 for the MAX. There is no doubt that the NEO stole the spotlight at last year’s Paris air show. Airbus announced hundreds of orders at Le Bourget for the reengined, more efficient narrowbody aircraft, leaving Boeing executives looking flat-footed as they maintained they still had time to decide whether to offer a new engine on the 737 or develop a brand-new jet that would enter service several years later. “There’s no need for an artificial deadline, and by the end of the year we’ll have got more direction,” maintained Boeing’s Mike Bair, vice president of advanced 737 product development. But just a month later, his company hastily announced it would offer the MAX as an alternative to the NEO ...