Star Alliance seeks custom Dreamliner specifications

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www.usaviation.com
Thursday April 13, 2006
Star Alliance is working on collective specifications for the 787, Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe told ATWOnline during the group's meeting in Johannesburg earlier this week. The alliance has a working group including member airlines Lufthansa, ANA, Singapore Airlines, ANZ, Air Canada and LOT Polish Airlines negotiating with Boeing on a wide spectrum of specifications ranging from cockpit configuration through galley configuration and seat pitch.

Individual carriers would buy the aircraft, "but a far-reaching commonality in the specifications facilitates the seasonal aircraft swapping between members," Fyfe noted, adding there is also a cost benefit. "The more you have commonality in your requirements, the more that Boeing will look to feed those issues into the base design, rather than having to do them as add-on incremental." Economies of scale are an additional advantage.

Star already had a similar joint aircraft project, although on smaller scale, for the Embraer 175/190. "Regional jets have fewer specifications, so it was an easier project. It was very successful. A number of Star Alliance partners have ordered the aircraft with the Star Alliance specifications," Fyfe said.