Boeing Co. BA +1.51%is likely to seek approval from its board as soon as next month to sell a new version of its 777 jetliner, according to people familiar with the plan, a milestone after years of work to upgrade its best-selling plane.
The new version is dubbed the 777X. Boeing has made conditional offers to at least three customers—Emirates Airline, International Consolidated Airlines Group SA IAG.MC -0.39%and Japan Airlines Co. 9201.TO +0.11%—to potentially become launch customers for the jet, but the discussions hinge on the board's approval and the completion of other technical considerations, the people said.
Boeing aims to have the first of two new 777 models available to customers by 2019, the people said.
Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said that it hasn't set a firm timeline or launched the new 777 program, but has "consistently talked about" possible launch "around the end of the decade." Boeing is "aggressively moving forward per our plan and working with our customers on the requirements" of the 777X, he said. "Customers are happy with the airplane design and we are pleased with where we are in the process."
Spokesmen from Emirates and IAG, the parent of Iberia and British Airways, declined to comment on any discussions with Boeing about the 777X. A JAL spokesman said the carrier is considering purchasing the 777X, but declined to comment on whether Boeing had made a conditional offer to it to be a launch customer.
Emirates Chief Executive Tim Clark said last week Boeing was close to offering the updated jetliner.
The 777X is Boeing's response to the Airbus A350, which seats between 270 and 350 people. But the A350's arrival has been delayed by a year to mid-2014 and Boeing's current 777 has reaped the benefits, producing record orders in 2011 and raising production rates, putting Boeing in a quandary about how and when to upgrade and replace a best-seller. The company's 365-seat 777-300ER, which first flew in 2003, is the best-selling twin-aisle jetliner model in commercial aviation history, with nearly 700 ordered.
Boeing has deliberated for years about the size and shape of the 777X, and was stymied last summer when it became clear its concept would cost too much to develop and sell. With the guidance from customers, Boeing began looking to slash the cost to design the new jet.
"We've been working really hard on the business case," Ray Conner, Boeing's commercial-airplanes chief executive, said last week.
Boeing on Friday appointed a new vice president and general manager of the 777X development, Bob Feldmann. Mr. Feldmann joins the 777X program following an 18-month stint as program chief of the 737 Max, an upgrade of a single-aisle aircraft with new engines that is due for release in 2017.
Boeing also is nearing a final decision on an engine for the 777X, with industry and company officials pointing to General Electric Co. GE -0.90%maintaining its exclusivity agreement on the program. That would shut out Rolls-Royce PLC. RR.LN -0.21%United Technologies Corp.'s UTX +0.97%Pratt & Whitney withdrew from consideration in January.
"Our decision regarding engine options will be based on the right technical solutions available at the right time under the right business arrangements to meet our customers' requirements," said Mr. Birtel, the Boeing spokesman.
GE and Rolls-Royce declined to comment on engine selection.
The new jet will likely feature a carbon-fiber composite wing, modeled on the wing developed for the 787 Dreamliner, as well as a new flight deck with larger displays.
Mr. Conner said last week that development on the 777X and a longer version of the 787 had slowed since the global 787 fleet was grounded following two lithium-ion battery failures in January. But, he said, both jets "are in relatively good shape, once we get through the battery issue."
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is considering a Boeing proposal to begin testing and certification efforts for its 787 batteries.
Airbus, a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., EAD.FR +1.25%has been a beneficiary of Boeing's delays, with its own well-stocked order book for smaller A330 jets.
The first model of the 777X, which will drop the X once it begins service, is a further stretch of the company's largest 777 and will seat around 400 passengers. That is tentatively scheduled for delivery in late 2019.
A second model is expected to follow in 2021 and will carry around 350 passengers and is seen as a direct replacement of the 777-300ER. Emirates, which purchased more than 100 777s, is most interested in the second model to begin replacing its fleet early next decade, and already holds some rights to convert its existing 777 orders to the new models, Mr. Clark said last year.
For passengers, the bodies of the new models won't be significantly stretched than today's 777 jets. Rather Boeing is reshaping the cabin walls and overhead bins to more comfortably accommodate ten-abreast economy-class seating, up from nine-abreast when the jet first went into service in 1995
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