Boeing to cut giant passenger jets

Boeing sees the future, and it doesn't include jumbo passenger jets. Not its own iconic 747. Not the Airbus A380.

The U.S. plane maker has dropped the category reserved for four-engine behemoths from its annual forecast for the commercial-aircraft market. Instead, Boeing predicts that airlines will use more efficient twin-engine jets for long-range flights - such as its 787 Dreamliner and 777X, or a midmarket plane that's on the drawing board.

By leaving so-called very large aircraft off its two-decade projection for a $6.05 trillion jetliner market, Boeing said it was reflecting a market reality. There is little to no chance of reviving sales of those models.

The Chicago-based company and Airbus already had pared production of their biggest aircraft as orders dwindled, and Boeing has warned it may stop making the 747's passenger version.

'We don't see much demand for really big aircraft going forward,” Randy Tinseth, Boeing's vice president for marketing, said at a briefing ahead of the Paris Air Show, which began Monday. 'We find it hard to believe that Airbus will deliver the rest of their A380s in backlog.”

Airbus still sees a long-term market for the planes, although it didn't log a single A380 sale last year. The Toulouse, France-based manufacturer says airlines will need larger jets as passenger traffic doubles and congestion limits the number of flights into megahubs, particularly in Asia and the Middle East.

The European company projects potential industrywide sales of 1,400 of the largest commercial aircraft, valued at $454 billion through 2037. That compares with Boeing's 20-year forecast for 80 deliveries that Tinseth outlined Tuesday at a Paris show presentation.

As the jumbo era ends at Boeing, the plane maker sees a new market emerging for midrange airplanes overlapping the largest single-aisle and smallest twin-aisle jets. That differs from the stance at Airbus, which announced plans at the Paris show to make enhancements to the A380 in the hopes of one day reviving orders.

'They went big and heavy, we went small and efficient,” said Mike Delaney, Boeing vice president and general manager for airplane development. 'We'll overfly our competitors, put a lighter gauge on things.”

Airbus is refining the double-decker A380's design, including adding 4.7-meter (15-foot) winglets, to boost fuel efficiency by as much as 4 percent. Tinseth dismissed the strategy. 'Putting winglets on an airplane that's too big doesn't make that airplane any smaller,” he said.