Boeing jet aims to rekindle cut-price spirit of Laker

Twenty years after Sir Freddie Laker's Skytrain went bust, the US aerospace giant Boeing is aiming to kick-start a new era in low-cost transatlantic air travel with its planned 250-seat jet the 7E7.

Boeing believes its new aircraft, which is due to be launched late this year or early next, could make cut-price flights across the Atlantic a reality once more.

Phil Condit, the chairman of Boeing, disclosed that one of the key markets for the new fuel-efficient jet would be low-cost operators even though the likes of Ryanair and easyJet have ruled out launching long-haul services.

The 7E7 will replace the Boeing 767 and will have a range of up to 8,000 miles and use 15 to 20 per cent less fuel than existing wide-bodied jets. Mr Condit put the market for the 7E7, which is due to enter service in 2008, at around 2,000 aircraft – about double the number of 767s that Boeing has sold.

Boeing aims to bring the price of the aircraft itself down by using new cost-efficient methods to produce it. "It is the cost of the product which will be the revolution," Mr Condit said. "It will have fewer parts and be simpler to maintain."

As well as increased use of lightweight aluminium and composite materials, one of the innovations the Boeing development team is looking at is incorporating automatic on-board diagnostic systems which will enable the aircraft to monitor itself and report maintenance requirements to ground-based computer systems.

Boeing originally planned to develop a new high-speed aircraft called the Sonic Cruiser but scrapped the project late last year in favour of the 7E7. "We listened to our airline customers and they told us they wanted a new 250-seat aircraft that was more economic rather than one that went faster," Mr Condit said.