Last week, Delta
Alas, there's no guarantee Boeing will be doing the grabbing.
Crisis, opportunity, you know the drill
If Delta's invitation creates a $32 billion opportunity for Boeing, it also poses a risk. The announcement coyly explains that Delta has invited "several" airplane builders to bid for its business -- suggesting a wider field than just the usual suspects, Boeing and Airbus. It almost certainly implies that Delta is considering Embraer's
Who knows? Delta might even accept bids from Russia's Superjet or China's C919. That said, even if they're outfitted with parts from reputable, established manufacturers such as General Electric
Cynics will argue that as a heavy user of Boeing and Airbus planes, Delta will stick with the tried and true, rather than opt for anything shiny and new. But even in that case, the fear of having to beat phantom competition might spur Boeing to offer Delta its planes at too low a price, slashing profit margins and hoping to "make it up on volume."
Foolish takeaway
For the record, I consider that as the biggest risk, too. Nonetheless, remember that when Airbus won its ballyhooed $5.1 billion order from Virgin America yesterday, Virgin observed that if it hadn't given the contract to Airbus, its second choice would have been Bombardier and its CSeries jet -- not Boeing.
While some Fools pooh-pooh the risk of Bombardier stealing share from Boeing, make no mistake: The threat from Canada is real, and it's growing.
