Widebody Twin Benefitting From Superjumbo Woes?

Boeing's 777 may benefit further from launch delays with the Airbus A380, as the CEO of A380 launch customer Singapore Airlines said recently the carrier purchase more 777s to expand its operations if there are further delivery delays to the supersize jet.

CEO Chew Choon Seng told Bloomberg that Singapore Airlines is sticking by the A380... but that doesn't mean the carrier isn't readying a contingency plan, just in case.

"Boeing 777-300ERs in our experience would be a useful alternative to A380s," said Chew Choon Seng. "We could upsize the order if there are further delays with the A380."

Singapore Airlines is slated to have 10 777-300ERs in service by the middle of next year. As Aero-News reported, the carrier began taking delivery of six of those planes last month.

The carrier currently has 10 firm orders for the 555-seat A380. Singapore Airlines said in July it expected to buy nine more. That was before Airbus announced the second of two delays to hit the program this year, which pushed off deliveries of the supersized plane to Singapore Airlines to October 2007. The airline had expected to receive its first A380 this month.

While it's certainly no lightweight, the 777-300ER is a much smaller plane than the A380 -- with a maximum three-class capacity of 365, just shy of 200 fewer than on the Airbus plane. But the Boeing aircraft has experienced something of a windfall since Airbus announced the latest delay to hit the A380 program in October.

Emirates, the biggest A380 customer, recently announced plans to lease at least five more 777s to compensate for the lack of capacity created by delays in delivery of its A380s. Cargo carrier FedEx -- to date, the only airline to cancel its A380 order outright -- opted to replace its 10 A380 freighters with 15 freighter versions of the 777.

FMI: www.singaporeair.com