Seattle ? Boeing Co. is “extremely confident” it will land one or more initial customers for its planned new 7E7 Dreamliner airplane this year, a top Boeing executive said Wednesday.

Mike Bair, senior vice president for the 7E7 program, said the Chicago-based company was working with more than 50 airlines worldwide to snag launch orders for the new jetliner.

Boeing has yet to announce any takers for the 7E7, which it formally offered for sale in December.

Many industry watchers speculate an Asian airline likely will be the first buyer, and Bair reiterated Wednesday that there was intense interest from Asian carriers.

But, he said, U.S. carriers also were “very interested,” and noted the company was talking with European carriers as well.

Bair would not say which airlines Boeing was negotiating with. He predicted Boeing would have an announcement on initial customers for its fuel-efficient, 200-plus-passenger plane “sooner rather than later” this year.

“We’re very, very confident that that’s going to happen,” he said.

Bair said Boeing expected to choose who would make the new airplane’s engines by mid-April.

Boeing expects to list the planes at $120 million. Airlines typically negotiate to pay much less, but that price — comparable to an existing Boeing 767-300ER — is a big selling point, Bair said.