Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), on December 28, 2014, launched the first flight of its prototype KC-46A tankers. The test flight ended at Boeing’s Field in Seattle and started from Paine Field that is located in Washington. The total time for this test flight was recorded to be 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The plane that tested the tankers was given the name EMD-1 (engineering, manufacturing and development). This plane was specially manufactured on the design of Boeing’s previous jet, 767 2C commercial. EMD-1, however, did not include any military system or refueling gear in its test drive. The final version of the plane will have both these systems.

Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) has to deliver its finished KC-46A planes to the Air Force of United States by the end of the year 2017. The company wants to start the process early and wishes to deliver the first 18 planes by the end of the year 2016. U.S Air Force has placed 179 orders for KC-46A tankers. These tankers will replace the previous version of tankers, KC-135. Air Force has been using KC 135 tankers since 1957. Now, it is time for United States Air Force to replace the old technologies with the new ones.

It is important to mention here that EMD-1 is not the only test plane that Boeing is developing right now. The other prototypes for EMD-2, 3, and 4 are also under construction. The planes will be ready for their test flights by the mid of 2015.The first KC-46A, which is EMD-2 prototype, will have its test flight in the month of April 2015.

According to the management of Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), all the test planes will be up and flying next year. Moreover, if everything proceeds according to the schedule, the company will be delivering its first 18 KC-46As by the end of the year 2017.

Boeing was scheduled to have these test flights earlier in the year. However, the company struck a wiring harness, and the program got delayed by 6 months. Although the design of KC-46A is based on 767-2C, there are some improvements that have been made in it. The fuselage in the latest model has been made stronger. Similarly, the wing size is also greater so as to accommodate heavier weights.

A progress report was released by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) back in April, which showed that the U.S. Air Force will pay around $287 million for each tanker. It is important to mention here that these figures do not include maintenance contract of the jets. Boeing will be making an extra $51.4 billion from the additional parts and maintenance contracts.

As for the stock prices of Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), the company, during the last trading day of December 29, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $131.72 and closed at a price of $132.29, after hitting the highest price of $132.73. The total market capitalization of Boeing was recorded to be at $93.68 billion.

The reason why Boeing is far ahead of Airbus is its much popular Boeing 777. The company received 269 orders for this aircraft during the year 2014, and not even a single order was canceled by the end of the year 2014. According to some market analysts, this may be a downside for the company, for no buyers are interested in Boeing’s 747 anymore. The company will have to quit production of 747 if it does not receive enough orders.

But then again, this is not really a surprise. The market analysts and experts were expecting this, for the air travel industry is one where the costs of the fuels make up almost one-third of the total costs of airlines. The 747 is a four engine jet that consumes much more fuel than its successors.

The company has 39 total orders for its jumbo jets. The management of Boeing (NYSE:BA) recently announced that it would lower the production to just 1.3 planes monthly. If the company does not receive any more orders, it would still be good for another 29 months. However, the company will have to cease the production of 747 by June 2017 if it does not get any more orders.

Boeing 747-200Bs was built back in 1987, and it is being used by U.S. Air force since then.  The latest model of 747 comes at a price of $360 million. If the U.S. Air Force gives orders for 747, Boeing (NYSE:BA) will have an order worth $1.3 billion, which is almost 1.5 percent of the total revenues that the company reports yearly.

But even if the company does not receive order from U.S. Air Force, it will still be good to go, for Japan has just ordered some 777 engines- these are similar in size and shape to that of 747.

Coming to the current stock prices of Boeing (NYSE:BA), the company is trading in the range of $130.23 to $131.93. On the last trade day of December 26, 2014, Boeing (NYSE:BA) started its stocks at a price of $131.29 and closed at a price of $131.63, after hitting the highest price of $131.93.

As far as the market capitalization and the P/E (price to earnings) ratio of the company is concerned, the figures currently stand at $93.84 billion and 18.81 respectively.

Let’s talk about Dreamliner for a bit. Boeing (NYSE:BA) launched this model into the market back in the year 2011. The model was delayed for 4 years due to a number of issues that the company was facing. Ever since the company launched Dreamliner, it has been bagging lots of contracts. According to one estimate, the company has gotten around 1,000 orders for this plane.

Following the success of Dreamliner 787, Airbus wanted to design a model that would be able to compete against the latest model of Boeing. The European airplane company started its project on A-350 in order to overcome the shortcomings that its A-330 had. After several years of efforts, the company finally pulled out a design for its A350 XWB. As soon as the airline companies across the globe heard of a competing jet, they were quick in placing their orders for A-350. According to the company, Airbus has received 750 orders for its A-350 XWB from 41 different clients.

According to the chief executive of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, what makes Airbus’ A-350 more attractive than Boeing’s Dreamliner is the fact that the jet is 25 percent more efficient when it comes to fuel consumption. The CEO further said that the costs of airline’s operations would go down by a huge figure due to this plus point. The costs of fuel is responsible for making up around 30 percent of the total operational costs of an airline, a fuel efficient jet would mean that the company will be seeing a reduction in its costs for years to come. Perhaps this is the reason why so many airlines have placed orders for A-350.

Now that Airbus and Boeing have their jets on the runway, the competition between both the rivals has gotten stiff.  The monopoly which Boeing was enjoying, over carbon-composited airplanes, has come to an end. In order for Boeing to restore its dominant position in the commercial segment, the company needs to either come up with a new model or it has to make improvements in its Dreamliner. It is important to mention here that Dreamliner is having some problems, especially the wing cracks and batter fires.

Such a huge increase in the dividend shows that Boeing Co (NYSR: BA) is optimistic about the coming year.

The company saw an increase of around $5 billion in its revenues from the commercial airplanes segment during the past 3 quarters. This increase compensates the $1 billion loss that the company experienced from its space, defense and security segments.

The company has a lot of orders in the backlog, which means that it will be doing just fine even if it does not get any more contracts for quite a while now.

The earnings from defense, security and space segments have increased due to the high operational figures. Market analysts are optimistic that the company will continue to report strong figures from these segments, despite their weak contribution in the backlog contracts.

The company had reported a loss of $1 billion in the revenues of its space and defense segments; however, due to improved operations and cost cutting strategies, Boeing Co (NYSR: BA) was able to bring the decline to only $65 million.  To put in another way, the company improved its operating margins of defense and space segments by more than 10bps during the first 3 quarters of the year 2014.

This strategy employed by the company suggests that Boeing will continue to see increased profits and revenues in the coming quarters. The announcement of share buyback program and increase in dividends show that the company is quite confident about its cash flow.

Boeing Co (NYSR: BA) recently mentioned its cash flow for operations in its guidance report. The company improved the figures to $7 billion for the year 2014. Where this shows that the company has remarkable cash flow for operations, it also suggests that Boeing Co (NYSR: BA) is doing well in its pension plan.

The dividend increase can also mean that the management of the company is quite confident about its latest 787 Dreamliner.  If that is true, the company’s financial performance will improve by many folds.

Coming to the stock prices of Boeing Co (NYSR: BA), the company, on the last trading day of December 19, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $125.63 and closed at a price of $126.26, after hitting the highest figures of $127.42. The company has a total market capitalization of $89.99 billion with a P/E (price to earnings) ratio of 18.04. As far as the dividend yield of Boeing Co (NYSR: BA) is concerned, the figures are recorded to be around 2.88 percent.

A number of countries all over the world are updating their air bases by introducing more and more fighter jets, but Boeing is losing all those contracts. The company lost a $7.7 billion deal to Lockheed Martin in the region of South Korea last year. It is important to mention here that the deal was for Boeing’s F-15 jets. Recently, the company lost another contract to Saab in the territory of Brazil. The total worth of the contract was recorded to be around $20 billion.

Coming to the country of Argentina, Boeing (NYSE:BA) is not even in the race for a new contract there, for Lockheed will win easily if the administration of Kirchner picks the partner of Lockheed, Korea Aerospace Industries.

It is not Boeing that is facing difficulties these days; its competitor, Airbus is also having a hard time. Airbus owns a large amount of shares in Eurofighter. Eurofighter lost a $9.8 billion contract last year. It is important to mention here that the contract was for United Arab Emirates planes. The UAE will probably seal the deal with Textron now. Airbus is thinking about closing down the production of its Typhoon jets by the year 2020.

Boeing’s F/A-18 is one of the biggest rivals of Typhoon, and the chances are that the production of F/A-18 will be shut down by the year 2016. The current situation of both Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Airbus is not going so great. Perhaps this is the reason why the market analysts are expecting these companies to strike a deal and work together in order to gain benefits.

Airbus and Boeing are redesigning and updating their fighter jets. Meanwhile, the United States Air Force is thinking about developing a new fighter jet belonging to the sixth generation. This new fighter jet will be replacing the F35 of Lockheed. Last month, when the executive vice president of Airbus for the Military Aircraft, Urena Raso, was question as to whether the company is interested in teaming up with some American airplane company in order to build and design a new fighter jet for a potential US Air Force bid, he replied with the words ‘why not?’ Market analysts are of the opinion that Airbus is seriously considering teaming up with another company in order to fill its technology gap. It is important to mention here that Boeing built its 5^th generation prototype quite a while ago, whereas, Airbus has not reached there yet.

Coming to the stock prices of Boeing (NYSE:BA), the company, on the last trading day of December 12, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $122.24 and closed at a price of $120.77, after hitting the highest price of $122.27. The company has a total market capitalization of $86.1 billion with a P/E (price to earnings) ratio of 17.26.

This new airplane of Airbus has the Rolls-Royce engines and curved extensions. The company promises that this new plane will consume 14 percent less fuel than its A330. Airbus is planning to introduce A330neo into service by the end of the year 2017. Although this entry is 6 years late than Boeing’s first ever 787, market experts expect Airbus to win over Boeing both in terms of market share as well as pricing.

Coming to the features of A330neo, the company plans on introducing the aircraft in 2 different models, A330-900neo and A330-800neo. If you are wondering as to what the letters neo stand for, let us reveal it. Neo is the abbreviation for New Engine Option, which indicates to the fact that the main feature in the new A330neo is the engine of Rolls-Royce. Perhaps this is the reason why the plane is much more efficient than the other aircrafts.

The plane will accommodate around 250 to 310 passengers with a 3 class seating arrangement.  These features resemble that of Boeing Corporation’s (NYSE:BA) 787 Dreamliner, which has a seating capacity of around 240 to 320 passengers. Boeing’s Dreamliner has a higher range than Airbus’ A330neo.  Dreamliner can fly at a range of 7,000 nautical miles whereas A330-900neo will have a range of 6,200 nautical miles.

It is important to mention here that many companies are placing orders for A330neo, despite the fact that its range is lower than that of Boeings. For instance, the airlines in Asia are fine with the range of Airbus’ airplane.  It is true that Boeing’s higher range allows the airlines some flexibility in terms of the expansion of network, however, this flexibility comes at a price, which the airlines do not want to pay upfront. Chances are that the airlines, which deal with smaller trips, will prefer A330 over 787.  If this happens, some of the market share from wide-body aircraft segment will be taken away by Airbus. Not to mention that the segment is currently dominated by the 787 Dreamliners of Boeing.

Boeing Corporation (NYSE:BA) has already lost some of its narrow-body aircraft segment’s market share to Airbus; losing some more in the wide-body segment can prove to be quite detrimental to the future of Boeing.

Boeing Corporation (NYSE:BA) can give a discount on the purchase of its Dreamliners in order to keep the customers intact to the company.

Coming to the stock prices of Boeing Corporation (NYSE:BA), the company, on the last trading day of December 3, 2014, started its stocks at a price of $132.65 and closed at a price of $131.97, after hitting the highest price of $133.28.