Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al-Baker says its company is willing to be launch customer of the 777X’s freighter version if Boeing decides to produce it.
The Qatari chief executive said some of their freighters in the fleet will be around ten years old by 2025, and they expect Boeing to launch a freighter version of the 777X to replace them.
“I hope that Boeing will do what the customer wants, so it will have more efficient freighters. We would also like to be the launch customer, because of the confidence we have in Boeing,” Al-Baker said.
Al Baker’s statement came after the chief executive announced his company’s order commitment for five Boeing 777F.
Airlinerwatch reports that the cargo branch of the Qatari carrier currently operates 16 Boeing 777F.
“The natural progression of the family is to… have one production line that has three models – the -8, the -9 and some form of the freighter,” said Ihssane Mounir on June 18, Boeing’s senior vice-president of commercial sales and marketing.
Mounir also said that they were already in talks with their 777F customers about a possible release date of the 777X freighter.
Boeing was planning to carry out the first flight of the 777-9 at the end of this month, but the manufacturer had to delay it due to a faulty part discovered in the aircraft’s GE9X engines.
If everything goes as planned, the first deliveries will begin in 2020, and then Boeing will focus on the certification of the smaller 777-8.
Boeing foresees that the market will require 1,040 Widebody freighters in the next 20 years.
