Boeing expects customers to look at Airbus A320neo

LE BOURGET: Boeing believes its 737 customers may take a "long, hard" look at the competing Airbus A320neo as it waits to make a decision about whether to re-engine or redesign its narrow-body plane, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the Paris Air Show, Jim Albaugh said Boeing would not react to that kind of pressure and that it intended to make a plane that satisfies market needs for decades.

Albaugh said he did not know where a new 737 would be built and has not ruled out building the current version of the 737 at the same time as an upgraded plane.

Copyright Reuters, 2011