Massive 777 order for Boeing coming at the Farnborough Air Show, but it won't be new revenue | Seattle Times Newspaper

Boeing will make headlines at the Farnborough Air Show with a giant order of 777s from Dubai flag carrier Emirates, according to a person familiar with the details.

That's huge news for Emirates. But for Boeing, it won't truly be new revenue.

Similar to the deal Airbus got at the Berlin Air Show last month, this order is a replacement for a 2007 order from airplane leasing company DAE
Capital -- led by CEO Bob Genise, formerly of Bellevue-based aircraft
lessors Boullioun Aviation Services.

In Berlin, Emirates shocked rival airlines by announcing a massive order for 32 Airbus A380 superjumbo jets, worth $11 billion at list prices, or more like $6 billion in real money after standard discounts. That was in addition to the 58 A380s Emirates had previously ordered.

But trade magazine Airfinance Journal soon revealed that the order was part of a complex swap. The Dubai government was working out the consequences of the global economic crisis and the bursting of its real estate bubble in 2009. Faced with a collapse of financing for DAE Capital, Dubai decided to cut the lessor's ambitious growth plans and negotiated a transfer of its 2007 Airbus sales commitments to Emirates.

Emirates didn't want smaller airplanes. Hence a 100-airplane order for 70 single-aisle A320s and 30 widebody A350s from the leasing company in 2007 switched to that order for 32 superjumbos in 2010.

In terms of dollar value, it's a wash for Airbus. But it sure beats a canceled order.

Now similarly for Boeing. In 2007, DAE Capital had ordered 70 single-aisle 737s,15 widebody 787 Dreamliners, ten 777s and five 747-8 freighters.

Emirates wants only 777s. The math suggests that to keep Boeing more or less whole, the carrier that aims to rule the airline world will take more than 40 of them.