B/E Aerospace lands more than $200M in programs

B/E Aerospace Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer of aircraft cabin interior products and a leading aftermarket distributor of aerospace fasteners, on January 11 announced that it has recently won nine B787 program awards which together with other awards from U.S., Asian and Chinese airlines are initially valued at more than $200 million.

The programs include the following:

·     Initial Boeing 787 orders from nine major global airlines for seating and/or a broad array of food and beverage preparation and storage equipment, and oxygen systems.

·     Retrofit awards from two North American carriers to begin re-equipping certain of their aircraft types.

·     Awards from two major Asian carriers to outfit both their new-buy and existing B777 aircraft.

·     Awards from four major Chinese airlines to outfit over 130 of their new-buy Boeing and Airbus narrow-body aircraft with B/E’s first-class and coach-class seating, food and beverage preparation and storage equipment and its oxygen systems.

“We are encouraged by the heightened levels of both retrofit and new-buy RFQ activity, recent awards from U.S. airlines and the continued strong demand, primarily from Pacific Rim, Asian and Chinese carriers. That strength is being fortified by order activity for cabin interior equipment required to outfit, particularly, the airlines’ new-buy B787 and B777 aircraft. Our business continues to be strong in the rapidly growing Chinese and Indian markets. For 2006, our bookings from Chinese airlines were approximately $100 million,” said Amin Khoury, chairman and chief executive officer of B/E Aerospace.

“These awards, and expected follow-on orders should drive our backlog to new record levels in 2007 as our major airline customers place orders to fulfill the cabin interior requirements for their new-buy aircraft. Industry experts are forecasting that over 1,000 wide-body aircraft will be delivered over the 2007 to 2010 period. These aircraft alone are expected to generate about $3 billion of demand for cabin interior equipment.

“The size and composition of our backlog, expected follow-on orders, the ramp in wide-body deliveries together with the operating leverage inherent in our business serve as the foundation for our expectation for strong revenue growth and margin expansion through 2009.”