Boeing under pressure to consider re-engine of 737, to follow Airbus

USA's Southwest Airlines, which operates the largest fleet of 737s, said waiting a decade for a new plane was too long, reported www.bloomberg.com recently. Boeing has said it prefers to focus on a new jet because customers don't see a business case for the re-engine step. Airbus is suggesting a fuel saving of up to 15% for its offering, which will see first deliveries in 2016. Were Boeing to offer a similar improvement, it would mean big savings for Southwest, whose chief executive officer, Gary Kelly, is quoted as saying: "When you talk about something that's 10 years from now, that's not a solution, that's an idea. "Who among us is to say it won't be 15 years from now? In the meantime, we're going to spend $40 billion on fuel." A 15% saving on that is $6 billion and 737 list prices as at January 2010 were from $51 to $87 million. So, at an average $65 million, that's over 90-off 737s. Southwest operates a fleet of 544 aircraft, all of them 737s. The Bloomberg report observed that, while new engines promise to cut fuel consumption by about 15%, the savings on direct costs would be half that, as fuel is only part of operating cost. Another compromise is, it is suggested, a likely cut to payload or range, because the new engines are heavier. Finally, for Boeing, the fitting of new engines has an additional hurdle. Since the aircraft already sits close to the ground, landing gear would need to be redesigned to allow enough clearance.