Boeing bound for VIP business
The US company anticipates that the accident will finally hammer home the fact that the government has an imminent need for a new fleet of VIP aircraft - and allow it to pitch the virtues of its line of business jets. A VIP aircraft contract, which Boeing estimates could reach $120-240 million for a new outfit of aircraft, would be the spearhead of the US-based company's Poland strategy. The aircraft provider's plan would also include attempts to forge new relationships with LOT Polish Airlines and the Polish military.
"We're in hot pursuit of the VIP deal," said Stanley Glod, vice president, Central European International Business Development Integrated Defense Systems. No tender had been announced at the time of Glod's comments last week, but he pointed out that "we expect one."
Should a tender come to fruition, a litany of aerospace companies would indeed be interested. That would put Boeing in a very competitive group - at least if it counts the aerospace companies that have expressed interest in the past.
In August the government cancelled a VIP aircraft tender. At the time, Marek Wagner, the head of the prime minister's chancellery, said that the government annulled the tender due to a lack of interest among potential bidders. Polish law dictates there must be at least two bidders in a tender. Only Dassault Aviation was formally interested in the deal, while Bombardier, Gulfstream and Boeing expressed interest in the tender but did not take part. The country's original plans were to purchase six VIP planes, but budgetary constraints forced the number to be cut to four after which the deal was postponed indefinitely.
But following the prime minister's crash, Glod says there's a new sense of immediacy for a tender, and he adds that recent comments made by Wagner give him reason to be sanguine.
"We now have public awareness," Glod said, during an interview last week at the Warsaw Global Missile Inventory Conference. He pointed out, however, that Boeing was not initially prompted to seek VIP aircraft business by accident. Rather, it's a deal that it has been considering for the past year, he added.
Glod said he is optimistic about Boeing's prospects in the country in general, whether or not they win a VIP aircraft tender. This is despite Boeing's much-publicized troubles in the US. On December 1, Phil Condit resigned his post as chief executive at Boeing, after a legal and ethical scandal related to the company's $17 billion deal to supply the US Air Force with 767 planes for use as in-flight refueling tankers.
His resignation came on the heels of the dismissal of two other Boeing executives related to the deal. What's more, the company's bad press comes amid its aggressive cost-cutting measures as well as during the first year in which it will deliver fewer planes than its European archrival Airbus.
As such, new Polish business would be welcome.
In the corporate environment, Boeing is pushing a five aircraft package to Poland's chancellery of the prime ministry. Glod said that a tentative package includes two Boeing Business Jets, and three smaller 717s.
The VIP deal would allow Boeing to get a better foothold in the Polish commercial aircraft market, in which it already has supplied LOT with roughly two-dozen planes. Glod added that LOT is also a business target. Potentially, the company is looking to provide the national airline with a new fleet of 767s and 737s, or, he explained, it is entertaining the prospect of upgrading LOT's existing aircraft with what will be its newest commercial model, the 7E7, in the future. "And the future is not that far away," he said.
He said Boeing is receiving some political support for its intentions. "(US Ambassador) Christopher Hill is very much an advocate of an upgrade," he said. "That's very much in our favor."
He added Boeing has also spotted business opportunities with the military.
Glod said that he would look to proffer Chinook and Apache helicopters. Additionally, it would also look to upgrade the Polish military's Harpoon missile systems which is employed on the ships given to Poland by the US government. In 2000, for instance, the US government gave the Polish Navy a 20-year-old guided-missile frigate, which was then called the USS Clark; the Polish navy renamed it the Puławski. The frigate uses Boeing's Harpoon missiles, and as such, the company would like to provide it with a system upgrade, as well as some training. "Right now they don't even know how to use them," Glod said.
"We're in hot pursuit of the VIP deal," said Stanley Glod, vice president, Central European International Business Development Integrated Defense Systems. No tender had been announced at the time of Glod's comments last week, but he pointed out that "we expect one."
Should a tender come to fruition, a litany of aerospace companies would indeed be interested. That would put Boeing in a very competitive group - at least if it counts the aerospace companies that have expressed interest in the past.
In August the government cancelled a VIP aircraft tender. At the time, Marek Wagner, the head of the prime minister's chancellery, said that the government annulled the tender due to a lack of interest among potential bidders. Polish law dictates there must be at least two bidders in a tender. Only Dassault Aviation was formally interested in the deal, while Bombardier, Gulfstream and Boeing expressed interest in the tender but did not take part. The country's original plans were to purchase six VIP planes, but budgetary constraints forced the number to be cut to four after which the deal was postponed indefinitely.
But following the prime minister's crash, Glod says there's a new sense of immediacy for a tender, and he adds that recent comments made by Wagner give him reason to be sanguine.
"We now have public awareness," Glod said, during an interview last week at the Warsaw Global Missile Inventory Conference. He pointed out, however, that Boeing was not initially prompted to seek VIP aircraft business by accident. Rather, it's a deal that it has been considering for the past year, he added.
Glod said he is optimistic about Boeing's prospects in the country in general, whether or not they win a VIP aircraft tender. This is despite Boeing's much-publicized troubles in the US. On December 1, Phil Condit resigned his post as chief executive at Boeing, after a legal and ethical scandal related to the company's $17 billion deal to supply the US Air Force with 767 planes for use as in-flight refueling tankers.
His resignation came on the heels of the dismissal of two other Boeing executives related to the deal. What's more, the company's bad press comes amid its aggressive cost-cutting measures as well as during the first year in which it will deliver fewer planes than its European archrival Airbus.
As such, new Polish business would be welcome.
In the corporate environment, Boeing is pushing a five aircraft package to Poland's chancellery of the prime ministry. Glod said that a tentative package includes two Boeing Business Jets, and three smaller 717s.
The VIP deal would allow Boeing to get a better foothold in the Polish commercial aircraft market, in which it already has supplied LOT with roughly two-dozen planes. Glod added that LOT is also a business target. Potentially, the company is looking to provide the national airline with a new fleet of 767s and 737s, or, he explained, it is entertaining the prospect of upgrading LOT's existing aircraft with what will be its newest commercial model, the 7E7, in the future. "And the future is not that far away," he said.
He said Boeing is receiving some political support for its intentions. "(US Ambassador) Christopher Hill is very much an advocate of an upgrade," he said. "That's very much in our favor."
He added Boeing has also spotted business opportunities with the military.
Glod said that he would look to proffer Chinook and Apache helicopters. Additionally, it would also look to upgrade the Polish military's Harpoon missile systems which is employed on the ships given to Poland by the US government. In 2000, for instance, the US government gave the Polish Navy a 20-year-old guided-missile frigate, which was then called the USS Clark; the Polish navy renamed it the Puławski. The frigate uses Boeing's Harpoon missiles, and as such, the company would like to provide it with a system upgrade, as well as some training. "Right now they don't even know how to use them," Glod said.
