Boeing logs 29 orders; 50 more may be ahead

Boeing announced 29 new jet orders on its Web site Thursday, including 17 wide-bodies.

The value of the new orders is about $5 billion at list prices. However, with standard discounts, the true value is closer to $3 billion, based on current market estimates by aircraft-valuation company Avitas.

The orders included one for a VIP version of the forthcoming 787, generally sold to governments, big corporations or very wealthy individuals.

The customer for the biggest order, 15 777s, was not identified by Boeing, but in advance of the announcement, The Wall Street Journal named the purchaser as General Electric Commercial Aviation Services, or GECAS, GE's aircraft leasing-and-finance unit. GECAS is the largest aircraft lessor in the world.

The Journal also said orders for 50 more Boeing wide-body jets are in the pipeline and could be announced by year-end.

If those orders materialize and are supplemented by the typical end-of-year rush of single-aisle orders, Boeing would be within reach of last year's record of 1,002 net orders. The current tally stands at 822 net orders.

The pace of orders on the commercial side, plus recent contract wins on the defense side, has boosted Boeing's stock, which closed Thursday at $88.71, approaching its record high of $89.58.

Meanwhile, Airbus announced an order from Brazil's largest airline, TAM, for 37 jets, including six A330 wide-bodies.

The order is valued at about $3.2 billion at list prices, though the true value is less than $2 billion with standard discounts, based on Avitas' estimates.

Earlier this month, formerly all-Airbus TAM placed its first Boeing order for four 777s.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published November 17, 2006, was corrected November 20, 2006. A previous version of this story stated that Boeing's net order total for 2005 as 1,028. That is one of two net order figures cited by Boeing but does not reflect all order cancellations in 2005. Those are included in Boeing's other 2005 net order total of 1,002, which uses a different accounting method. This latter figure is the one Boeing must beat to top last year's total.