I spent the 4th visiting the in-laws. My mother in-law works for Beoing and I always enjoy reading their company publication. They had a really good article on the proposed 7E7, their next major new new model and their current marketing postion. Here's a link to the article:http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archi...une/cover1.htmlAs with any company, you know there is going to be some spin. But I think they were pretty forthcoming on their current position in the market and status of their fleet.As expected, the 737NG continues to carry the banner in the small-medium market. They all but admit the 717 was a major dissapointment. However, in fairness to Boeing, no one anticipated the boon of Regional Jets when the 717 was being designed. In it's current form, it can't compete with the dollar cost of RJ. Making a smaller version is a nice idea, but it still seems like it'll have trouble finding a niche.The plans seem to have the 7E7 replace the 757/767 fleet. The 757 seems to be near the end of it's production cycle. (That was always my favorite Boeing, but I think airlines tended to order the seats too close together). They seem pretty intent on letting the 747 and 777 handle the long haul fleet and do battle with the Airbus 380.Interesting reading....ed

>They all but admit the 717 was a major dissapointment. They don't do that. At least not in this article. And they even talk about building more variants of this aircraft.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

Michael,You are right, the specific 717 info was in part of another article that discussed the fate of 717's in service. TWA was a launch customer for AirTran. After the AA/TWA merger, AA decided to retire the 717 fleet. AirTran was a large launch customer of the 717, but just put in an order for 100 737NG. Although it's still a good sale for Boeing, it's not moving the 717.Based on Boeing's numbers, there have only been 34 717 ordered in the past 18 months to only a handful of carriers. Two of the luanch customers no longer fly the airplane and there are no large sales on the horizon.It seems to me that it has a tough place in the market. Although it's a very modern/efficient airplane, it's seating capacity is slightly less than a 737-600. The original market was short haul multiple flights with quick turnaround. A lot of that market has been filled by RJ's in the recent years.Too bad - I've flown on 717's on AirTran and really liked the plane. I've always been a fan of the high-tail look of the DC9 family.ed