Middle of the market
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The middle of the market, often abbreviated MoM, is the airliner market between the narrowbody and the widebody aircraft, a market segmentation used by Boeing Commercial Airplanes since at least 2003. Both
Airbus and Boeing The competition between Airbus and Boeing has been characterized as a duopoly in the large jet airliner market since the 1990s. This resulted from a series of mergers within the global aerospace industry, with Airbus beginning as a pan-Europea ...
produce aircraft that serve this segment. In the Boeing lineup, it is between the largest
Boeing 737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with ...
9 of of
maximum takeoff weight The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) or maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) or maximum takeoff mass (MTOM) of an aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot is allowed to attempt to take off, due to structural or other limits. The analogous ...
(MTOW) for 193 passengers in two classes over a range, and the smallest
Boeing 787-8 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...
of for 242 passengers in a 2-class configuration over a range. It was previously covered by Boeing with the largest modern narrowbody, the
Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its mai ...
, typically the -200 for 200 passengers over with a MTOW, and the smallest widebody, the seven-abreast Boeing 767, typically the -300ER for 269 passengers over with a MTOW. In the Airbus lineup, it is between the A321LR of of MTOW for 206 passengers in two classes over a range, and the
A330-800 The Airbus A330neo ("neo" for "Re-engine, New Engine Option") is a wide-body airliner developed by Airbus from the Airbus A330 (now A330''ceo'' – "Current Engine Option"). A new version with modern engines comparable with those developed for ...
of for 257 passengers in three classes over a range.


Boeing Y1 project

In 2006, Boeing was evaluating a successor for the
Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...
in the 100–200 seat market within the
Boeing Yellowstone Project Yellowstone is a Boeing Commercial Airplanes project to replace its entire civil aircraft portfolio with advanced technology aircraft. New technologies to be introduced include composite aerostructures, more electrical systems (reduction of hyd ...
as the Y1. In 2008,
ILFC The International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) was an aircraft lessor headquartered in the Constellation Place in Century City, Los Angeles, California, US. It was the world's largest aircraft lessor by value, though ILFC's rival, General El ...
's
Steven Udvar-Hazy Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
told Boeing to develop a midrange 787 derivative, between the 787-8 and 787-3 and industry consultant Richard Aboulafia observed it would be a good replacement for the Boeing 767-300ER. In 2011, Boeing focused its studies on an aircraft slightly larger than the 145 to 180-seat 737 Next Generation and ruled out developing a bigger 200 seat 757-sized replacement.


Boeing New Light Twin (NLT)

In 2011, Boeing was conceptualising a New Light Twin (NLT), a twin-aisle smaller than the 767 with a seven-abreast (2-3-2) economy seating and small
LD3 A unit load device (ULD) is a container used to load luggage, freight, and mail on wide-body aircraft and specific narrow-body aircraft. It allows preloading of cargo, confidence the containerised load will fit in the aircraft and efficient plann ...
-45W containers, as it can be seen in the illustrating picture. The NLT-300ER would have been long to accommodate 204 seats over , while the longer NLT-400 would cover with 241 passengers. Both would have been powered by engines with a fan, and would had a wide, wing designed for a Mach .8 cruise.


Boeing 737 MAX

After the
737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is the fourth generation of the Boeing 737, a narrow-body airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA), a division of American company Boeing. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) and competes with th ...
launch in late 2011, Boeing confirmed to study a replacement for the long haul 757-200 market, potentially as a further derivative of the 737 Max, as the 757-200 production ceased in 2004 and is replaced on medium haul routes by the Airbus A321 or the 737-900ER. In February 2014, as Airbus was going to overtake Boeing leadership for narrowbodies, especially as the A321neo was outselling the 737 MAX 9, Boeing was pressured to launch a 757 successor. In November, Boeing denied working on a modification of the 737 MAX 9. A parallel development of a MoM aircraft along with the new small airplane (NSA) 737 replacement, similar to when the 757 and 767 were developed in the 1970s, was then under consideration. Boeing finalised the 737 MAX 10 stretch design in early 2017.


Airbus A321LR

In October 2014, Airbus started marketing a 164 seats,
maximum takeoff weight The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) or maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) or maximum takeoff mass (MTOM) of an aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot is allowed to attempt to take off, due to structural or other limits. The analogous ...
variant with three auxiliary
fuel tanks A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for flammable fluids. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine system in which the fuel is stored and propelled ...
called the Airbus A321neoLR (Long Range) with 100 nm more operational range than the 169 seats
Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. The prototype completed its mai ...
-200W, 27% lower trip costs and 24% lower per seat costs; it would be scheduled for introduction in the second half of 2018, two years after the A321neo. Airbus launched the A321LR on 13 January 2015 with
Air Lease Corporation Air Lease Corporation (ALC) is an American aircraft leasing company founded in 2010 and headed by Steven F. Udvar-Házy. Air Lease purchases new commercial aircraft through direct orders from Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and ATR, and leases them to ...
as the launch customer, hoping to sell 1,000 examples of the variant. The initial layout of 164 seats (20 in business, 30 in
premium economy Premium economy class, also known as elite economy class or economy plus class, is a travel class offered on some airlines. It is usually positioned between standard economy class and business class in terms of price, comfort, and available a ...
and 114 in economy) is replaced by a 206-seat configuration (16 in business and 190 in economy) and range is , 500-nm farther than the regular 93.5t MTOW A321. Boeing dismissed Airbus projections of demand for 1,000 aircraft and considers the niche between the 737 MAX 9 and the 787-8 too small for a direct replacement of the 757 but could launch a clean sheet MoM aircraft. The A321neo is outselling the Boeing 4 to 1. The A321LR is seen as a replacement for the 757 for
Norwegian Air Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, trading as Norwegian, is a Norwegian low-cost airline and Norway's largest airline. It is the fourth largest low-cost carrier in Europe behind Wizz Air, easyJet and Ryanair, the second-largest airline in Scandinavia ...
. On March 30, 2018, an A321LR test airframe carrying the equivalent of 178 passengers and crew completed a nonstop flight from the
Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...
to
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
in 11 hours.


Boeing 757 re-engining

In February 2014, Boeing marketing Vice President Randy Tinseth said the 737-900ER/MAX 9 covers 95% of the routes flown by a 757. In February 2015, he stated that re-engining the 757 had been studied but there was no business case to support it. It was in response to
Air Lease Corporation Air Lease Corporation (ALC) is an American aircraft leasing company founded in 2010 and headed by Steven F. Udvar-Házy. Air Lease purchases new commercial aircraft through direct orders from Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and ATR, and leases them to ...
's
Steven Udvar-Hazy Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...
comments that Boeing could do it, but
Jefferies Group Jefferies Group LLC is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company that is headquartered in New York City. The firm provides clients with capital markets and financial advisory services, institutional br ...
analyst Howard Rubel noted that 15 percent of the 757 fleet, 150 aircraft, are parked and unused, and see no urgency to fill that market niche. Reengining and improving the wings of the existing 757 could be done. While Boeing suggested that the 757 replacement market is very small, operators like
La Compagnie La Compagnie, legally incorporated as DreamJet SAS, is a French boutique airline founded by Frantz Yvelin and based at Orly Airport in Paris, with headquarters in Le Bourget in the Paris metropolitan area. It offers all-business class fl ...
disagreed.
Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along w ...
is replacing theirs with Boeing 737-900ERs and A321s. From 2015 onwards, Boeing continued to do studies for a clean sheet aircraft, namely the New Midsized plane, which would have greater range, capacity, and efficiency than the .


New midsize airplane

Boeing has been studying a New Midsize Airplane since 2015, when it determined that the market was large enough to launch a new design. Multiple airlines expressed interest in a composite, seven-abreast twin-aisle with an elliptical cross-section. It is slated as a 5,000 nmi (9,300 km)
range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...
225 seater and a 4,500 nmi (8,300 km) 275 seater, as market forecasts varies between 2,000 and 4,000. Sold for $65m-$75m, it should generate 30% more revenue than narrowbodies and have 40% lower trip costs than replaced widebodies but would cost $12–15 billion to develop. A new turbofan could be proposed by
GE Aviation GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. GE Aviation is among the top aircraft engine suppliers, and offers engines for the majority of commercial aircraft. GE Aviation is part of t ...
/
CFM International CFM International is a 50/50 Franco-American joint venture between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly known as Snecma). It was formed to build and support the CFM56 series of turbofan engines. The company is the world’s lead ...
, Pratt & Whitney or
Rolls-Royce plc Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...
with a
bypass ratio The bypass ratio (BPR) of a turbofan engine is the ratio between the mass flow rate of the bypass stream to the mass flow rate entering the core. A 10:1 bypass ratio, for example, means that 10 kg of air passes through the bypass duct for ev ...
of 10:1 or more and an
overall pressure ratio In aeronautical engineering, overall pressure ratio, or overall compression ratio, is the ratio of the stagnation pressure as measured at the front and rear of the compressor of a gas turbine engine. The terms ''compression ratio'' and ''pressure ...
over 50:1. Boeing had intended to decide in 2019 whether to offer the new aircraft for sale, leading to a launch decision in 2020 and entry into service around 2025. After the grounding of the 737 MAX, Boeing was reportedly cancelling the NMA indefinitely and scrapping the clean sheet idea to create new versions of the aging 757 and 767, tentatively called the "757-Plus and 767X." In February 2021, Boeing was reported to be revisiting the NMA to compete with the A321XLR as a 757-200/300 successor. Boeing intended to target production costs comparable to single-aisle aircraft by reutilizing existing structures, systems and engine technology. Development costs were expected to reach $2-3 billion a year, up to $25 billion in total, with a potential go-ahead in 2022 or 2023 leading to a possible late 2020s service entry. In June 2022, Boeing indicated that it would not pursue development of the NMA for "at least a couple of years", until significant progress has been made on the next generation of engines and until new digital development tools are sufficiently mature.


Airbus A321 development

As Airbus does not believe small twin-aisle are worthy competitors in this market segment, as exemplified by the A310, it is studying a hypothetical A321neo-plus and A321neo-plus-plus with a new
carbon fibre composite Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...
wing to counter Boeing for a $1–2 billion development cost against $15 billion for a new jet. Such a plane would have a
MTOW The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) or maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) or maximum takeoff mass (MTOM) of an aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot is allowed to attempt to take off, due to structural or other limits. The analogous ...
. In April 2018, Airbus shelved studies on the A320/A321neo-plus, as they felt that increasing the rate of narrowbody production is problematic. In June 2018, Airbus was considering an extended range A321XLR to predate the Boeing NMA, with the same capacity and aerodynamic design but more fuel load. It could be launched in 2019 for a 2021/2022 introduction and by July 2018, an extra 200-300 nmi range was secured with the help of a larger center
fuel tank A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for flammable fluids. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine system in which the fuel is stored and propelle ...
, lacking 200 nmi to achieve a range. Airbus could offer a stretched A322neo seating 264–270 in two classes with more range than the 757-300, perhaps with a new wing for a $2bn development cost.


References


External links

* {{cite news , url= http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/boeing-mom-no-smokescreen , title= Boeing: MOM Is No Smokescreen , author= Guy Norris , work= Aviation Week & Space Technology , date= June 23, 2015 Airliners Boeing aircraft Proposed aircraft