Shoot the Dog, Part 1: Saj Ahmad and Fleetbuzz--quoting out of context

Saj Ahmad frequently quotes industry people (although there are problems with how he selectively quotes them and leaves the impression he got the quotes but in reality lifts them from other sources) but he has a history of quoting people out of context.

The most notorious example was Ahamd's "quoting" Pratt & Whitney CEO David Hess as "not impressed" with the Bombardier CSeries.

What Ahmad wrote was:

Pratt & Whitney President David Hess referred to being “disappointed” with low number of CSeries orders, six years after the program was launched – and with a delay on the program inevitable, prospects for the CSeries turning a corner are still a very distant prospect.

What Hess is reported to have said--and it is not even a direct quote--is in the 2010 Reuters article that wrote:

It was only a matter of time before the bleak and harsh reality of the CSeries weakness hit Pratt & Whitney.

Hess said he was disappointed at the surprisingly low number of orders for Bombardier's C-Series aircraft for which Pratt provides the engine.

Orders for the aircraft, which competes with Boeing's 737 and the A320 in the 100- to 149-seat segment, so far have failed to live up to expectations, totaling only about 90.
Bombardier blamed a lack of orders for the plane at the Farnborough Air Show in July on issues related to a support plan for the engine. At the Reuters summit, Hess shrugged off the complaint, calling it a "misunderstanding."

From the transcript of the interview, Hess actually said,

“I think we’re all a little disappointed that we weren’t able to complete the deals to announce orders there (at Farnborough 2009), but I’m not concerned because it’s a great airplane offering operators great economics, which is why there’s so much interest from airline customers.”

 Ahmad not only misrepresented what was actually reported, he misstated (as he always does) the CSeries timeline, saying it was six years from launch. The fact is the CSeries was launched in 2008, not 2004. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Hess said the CSeries is "a great airplane with great economics and it will sell very well."

Saj Ahmad at Fleetbuzz gets his facts wrong again and again and again

There is just no end to the number of times Saj Ahmad gets his facts wrong:

Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbo Fan is a frequent target. He recently and perpetually claims Boeing has no interest in the engine. This is just flat-out wrong, wrong, wrong. Boeing is very interested in the engine and is holding close discussions with Pratt to power the replacement aeroplane for the 737.

Ahmad recently cited a Boeing executive on "Pratt & Whitney's need to address questions no one seemed to be asking." This was referring to an article in Aviation Week .However, Ahmad, per his usual M.O., didn't cite the source, probably because doing so would show how selectively he chose his quote to unfairly portray what the executive truly said.

Here is the full, relevant quote from the article:

Piasecki has her own take on maturity of engine designs. For the NEO, Airbus is offering a choice of Pratt & Whitney’s PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) or CFM International’s Leap-X, the follow-on to the CFM56-7B that powers 737NGs. Both must prove themselves, she says, especially the PW1100G, the maintenance of which she regards as an unknown. “We love the GTF technology,” she says. “We hope to be working very closely with [Pratt] to understand the technology. But nobody seems to be asking such a fundamental question, particularly as it relates to the NEO.”

While Ahmad selectively referred to the maintenance issue, he left out that Boeing "loves" the GTF technology and that LEAP-X must also "prove itself." Ahmad, who fawns over LEAP-X, doesn't at any time mention the questions over LEAP-X.

Another topic on which Ahmad always gets his "facts" wrong concerns the Bombardier CSeries. Ahmad perpetuates his myth that the CSeries does not have US trans-continental range. Once again, wrong, wrong, wrong. Straight from Bombardier's website, the range is 1,850-2,950nm, more than enough to go across the US. Ahmad always and totally ignores the ER version offered by Bombardier with the greater range. This is just another sets of falsehoods he writes. He also conveniently ignores statements by Lufthansa's Nico Buchholz supporting the CSeries and from Virgin America's David Cush that the CSeries could perform all missions, including trans-continental routes, that Virgin needed.

More information will be forthcoming.