Bankers help hold down cost of new Boeing jet Wednesday May 5, 7:44 PM EDT By Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE, May 5 (Reuters) - Many features of Boeing Co.'s (BA) new 7E7 jetliner were designed not necessarily for airlines, but rather for the people that will ultimately own many of them -- bankers. Never before have financiers and lessors been so involved in drawing up plans for a new jetliner, a sign of the power they wield over an airline industry awash in red ink and their increasing frustration with weak returns on their investments. "We had to ask ourselves, how can we make this airplane a more attractive investment than airplanes have traditionally been," Scott Scherer, general manager of aircraft financial services at Boeing Capital Corp., told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. As a result the mid-sized 7E7 will have features like wireless entertainment systems, to cut the cost of periodic upgrades, plus electronic maintenance records and swappable engine types to help lessors re-market aircraft that come back from customers. Many other features will be standardized, slashing the dizzying array of costly options that airlines have previously demanded, from the dozens of possible positions for cockpit clipboards and coffee cup holders to the color of door handles in the passenger cabin. "The goal is lower capital costs than (buyers) could otherwise get, and there are certain attributes of the 'E7 that facilitate that, because it's a more fungible, a more liquid airplane," Scherer said. The stakes could hardly be bigger. Industry analysts estimate Boeing and its suppliers could spend nearly $10 billion to develop the mid-sized 7E7 wide-body, Boeing's first new jet in over a decade and perhaps its last chance to keep pace with fast-rising rival Airbus SAS (EAD) (EAD). COSTLY PROPERTY Each 7E7 will list at $120 million before routine discounting, a costly piece of property to sit idle between leases, as are hundreds of jets parked at desert airstrips since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks slammed the airlines. Airlines did win a draw in a battle over engine options. Financiers wanted one, while airlines, which often prefer a specific type, wanted two or three choices. Boeing ultimately chose Rolls-Royce Plc (RR) and General Electric Co.'s (GE) engine unit, but offered an engine mount that would allow a swap between the two types in a day or so, instead of weeks or months on current models. Scherer would not say what Boeing Capital's role would be on the 7E7. The finance unit supports jet sales by providing or arranging financing or outright leasing aircraft to airlines. It owns nearly the entire run of Boeing 717 narrow-body jets and scores of other aircraft and loans in a portfolio worth nearly $10 billion, plus $2 billion worth of commercial equipment and financing, which it plans to sell or unwind. Other big lessors have shown interest in the 7E7, including International Lease Finance Corp. (AIG), which has said its customers are interested in the aircraft, and GE's General Electric Capital Aviation Services. "I would anticipate GECAS would support the airplane," Scherer said. "I don't know whether they are going to (place speculative orders). I think their tendency is...to really work directly with airline customers." "I guess the question is whether we would sell to lessors on a speculative purchase basis and then they would in turn go and market the airplane to our airline customers, or we sell the airplanes directly to our customers and then they go and talk to the lessors and do sale-leasebacks on them," Scherer said. Roger EWROPS