Posted on 06/13/2005 4:31:35 AM PDT by neutrality
LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) - Qatar Airways plans to buy up to 60 of European planemaker Airbus's new A350 mid-size jets in a deal that could be worth $10.6 billion, the Middle Eastern airline said at the Paris Air Show on Monday.
Doha-based Qatar also said it planned to buy at least 20 of Boeing Co's larger 777 plane for around $4.6 billion.
The deal will give a big boost to Airbus as it tries to build up enough orders to proceed with its A350 project, a rival to Boeing's successful mid-size 787 plane.
"The Airbus A350 will be the ultimate choice for the future of the airline," Qatar Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker told reporters.
The Airbus planes would be delivered between 2010 and 2015, Qatar said, adding the deal would include buying both A350-800 and A350-900 variants of the plane.
The Boeing 777-300ER model was likely to account for around half of the order with the U.S. aerospace group, Qatar said.
Now, lets see if Airbus can actually deliver the planes, and whether they had to go so far under cost to seal the deal that they can't make a profit on the sale.
And that might depend on whether they can get throwaway loans from their governmental sponsors in Europe.
Yes, the 787 has something like 267 confirmed orders, the A350 was at like 10 or so.
How many confirmed orders does Airbus need to start up the production line?
I think you're thinking about the A380 with only ten orders, not the A350. Nobody is worried to much about A350 sales, the A380 is the big one.
They say 100. I don't believe this is a real order for Airbus. It is strictly a PR move. The 350 is DOA. It will never be built in it current form. Boeing says it is currently negotiating to sell 426 more 787's. With its new manufacturing techniques, it seems that Boeing is just an assembler of planes and will be able to expand production exponentially.
Look for a major shakeup at Airbus. The French and the Germans are no longer playing nice. They will have to get a Swede to run the place. Also, the coming losses are going to be staggering. Their mainstay 330 has been obsoleted. Once they get through the backlog there's going to be alot of idle Frenchmen.
I think Qatar Airways (QR) better hope Airbus has the money to develop the A350-9. Otherwise, QR could end up buying a lot more 777's than they imagined originally.
60 787's would of cost them something like $7.2 billion by my math. That A350 is a pricey sucker.
You've got it backwards. The A380 is the super jumbo and has around 265 orders while until today the A350 only had 10 orders. Now add another 60 for Qatar.
The only real reason the A350 won is because Emirates will order it sooner or later. Qatar is basically doing whatever Emirates does. Emirates orders the A380, so does Qatar. Emirates (will soon) order the A350, Qatar orders them too. Emirates flies the 777-200/300, Qatar orders some as well.
Now, here's the kicker...what are they going to do with all these planes? I believe this 'order' now puts their fleet totals larger than some major Asian carriers with established major hubs, are they going to replace their current Airbuses with the 777 and then the 350? Who needs to fly to Qatar, anyway (or to Dubai, for that matter)? It seems all they do is transfer people from one side of the planet to the other, with a stop in the Gulf. With Boeing's new 777/787 long range jets, it seems other airlines can do the same, without the stop, so is Q's market really that strong, long term?
Nominally, I would suspect Q to cancel some of these planes, like the 777 since they are all AB, but if they do that they are not getting any new planes for quite some time. What are they really trying to do?
One other thing, since Emirates is likely to go with the 350 as well, I think Q was foolish to pass up 2008 deliveries with the 787 and get a 2 year head start on their rival, since the 787 mostly destroys the 340's they currently both have. Now, Emirates has that opportunity. Let's see if they take advantage of it.
Yep, at this time Qatar has an all Airbus fleet.
That begs the question, then why is Qatar going for the 350? Did they really get them THAT cheap?
Not as many as Boeing thanks to all that government aid Airbus receives. If they had to compete in a fully free market without subsidies from European governments, their plight would be much worse.
By the way, ALAFCO, the Kuwaiti aircraft leasing company, has ordered 12 A350-800's with an option for 12 more. This means Kuwaiti Airways will likely get the A350-800 to replace their current widebody fleet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.