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Boeing may fail to win $20b order by Emirates

BOSTON/SEATTLE — Boeing Co. may fail to win a 100- plane order from Emirates because the biggest version of its 787 Dreamliner lacks sufficient power from its General Electric Co. engines, the Middle Eastern airline said.

Boeing’s 787-10, a 310-seat version of the Dreamliner that’s currently undergoing development, doesn’t yet meet Emirates’ needs, President Tim Clark said yesterday in an interview. The Dubai-based airline would operate the plane to destinations including Los Angeles.

“It needs more thrust,” Clark said in the interview in Cannes, southern France. “It’s not a view shared by Boeing, but my instinct tells me it needs more.”

Emirates is weighing the 787-10 against Airbus SAS’s A350- 900 and may order as many as 100 planes, worth about $20 billion at list prices, Clark said. Concern about GE’s GEnx engine might mean the carrier won’t reach a decision by the time of the Dubai Air Show next month, when it had intended to make an announcement, he said.

“We’re gratified Emirates is interested in the GEnx,” said Rick Kennedy, a spokesman for Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE. “At this juncture it’s premature, because the 787-10 hasn’t been formally offered to airlines.”

Boeing has more than 700 orders for the Dreamliner valued at about $120 billion. The plane’s first delivery was pushed back by six months on Oct. 10 after parts shortages and assembly problems on the first plane persisted. All Nippon Airways Co. will get the first plane in November or December 2008.

The company named Pat Shanahan to head the programme on October 16 replacing Michael Bair, who had been with the project from its beginning.

While the delayed 787 delivery is still five years earlier than the A350, which has undergone five revisions, Clark said the Airbus has benefited in terms of design, aerodynamics, materials and propulsion.

“The A350 is now an airplane we’re prepared to study seriously,” he said. “They listened, and from what we see of the A350 now it’s an essentially good airplane and it matches the 787 offering from Boeing.”

Rolls-Royce Group Plc offers engines for both the A350 and 787 and has a more powerful version that may suit Emirates’ requirements, Clark said. Still, the CEO said he would prefer to have a choice. GE and Airbus haven’t reached an engine supplier agreement.

A Dreamliner the size of the planned 787-10 would also compete with Boeing’s popular and lucrative 777-200 extended-and long-range models, which is in the same 300-passenger range. GE is the sole engine supplier on those models.

Boeing is counting on the 787 to win back dominance of the $60 billion jetliner market from Airbus as early as 2008. The average list price for the 250- to 350-seat A350 is $229 million, while the 787 costs $158.3 million on average.