Evergreen loses Boeing contract to Atlas

BOEING has unexpectedly chosen not to renew Oregon-based Evergreen International’s five-year contract to operate the manufacturer’s four 747-400 Dreamlifters. Instead the contract goes to New York-based Atlas Air for nine years starting in September.

The specially modified Dreamlifters are an integral part in the production of the 787 Dreamliner shipping parts from suppliers around the world to be assembled in the US.

Boeing chose Evergreen in 2005 and even up to the New Year, according to Evergreen’s chairman, Tim Wahlberg, Boeing was happy with its service and had given no hint to suggest that the contract review would be anything but routine.

“We were on time all the time. We ran a perfect operation,” says Wahlberg. “We’re very price-competitive. We believe [the switch] was unrelated to our operation. We’re really disappointed that Boeing hasn’t come clean on what the deal is. It hurts our reputation.

Boeing refused to comment on the change of contract.

“We don’t know the facts,” says Wahlberg. “We thought it would be nice if Boeing would have explained the facts to us. I don’t know what to say.”

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