Posted on 03/15/2007 10:54:11 PM PDT by lowbuck
Two airlines are close to pledging large orders for Airbus's proposed A350 aircraft, giving the European planemaker a welcome piece of good news.
As workers at the troubled company prepare for more strikes, Qatar Airways and Russia's Aeroflot said they were interested in orders worth $30bn (£15.4bn) at list prices.
Qatar said it aimed to buy 80 A350 airliners worth $17.2bn, one of the biggest orders in Airbus's history, while Aeroflot said it would order 22 of the same aircraft "in the coming weeks".
With the €10bn (£6.8bn) development of the longhaul A350 still in progress and some funding issues unresolved, two such orders will be a boost for the company. Shares in Airbus's parent, EADS, rose almost 3pc on the news.
Plans for the A350 were withdrawn after poor customer feedback, and the aircraft was reborn with an extra-wide body, costing twice as much to develop. Qatar was to have been the launch customer for the original A350, saying in 2005 that it wanted about 60.
Aeroflot had previously looked to buy the Boeing 787 instead of the A350, but it suspended negotiations with the US group at the end of February because of political tensions between Russia and the United States.
The Airbus news comes as thousands of workers in France and Germany prepare for strike action against the company's intention to shed 10,000 jobs. Airbus employs about 12,000 people in the UK, but its two sites are not involved in action.
Airbus has been hurt by delays to its A380 super-jumbo, leading to cancellations and costly re-negotiated contracts. Emirates, the Middle East airline and largest A380 customer with 45 ordered, once looked likely to cancel, but has gained a new deal
Yesterday, Emirates' president Tim Clark repeated claims made last year that the A380 was still overweight and would raise costs. Speaking in London, Mr Clark also defended the airline industry against claims it was a leading contributor to climate change. He said people would be better off using low-cost airlines rather than cars, because flying was cleaner for the environment.
Meanwhile, does anyone have any concrete info on what Boeing is doing to replace the 737? I have to believe that what Airbus is playing catchup on the mid-size Boeing is planning to change the game on the narrow body.
"You can be sure that there was a substantial "discount" on these orders, "
Who cares about making profits when your a tax funded job creation program.
This order reaks of politics. Why the hell would an airlines out of the middle east buy 80 commercial planes that won't be on the market at the earliest 6 years from now?
The arabs promise to buy some planes, and expected in return, Europe promises to continue its conversion to islam, obstruct the US in the UN in any matters related islamic extremism, and keeps its anti-american bashing 24/7.
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As I posted in the other thread, I think they are looking for a payoff down the road when Airbus can't deliver the planes on time.
You might find an article from "The American Spectator" I just posted to be of interest. Keywords EADS or Airbus. Enjoy
Qatar Airways has a predominantly Airbus fleet with lots of 320s,330s & about 5-6 A-340s.They decided to buy Boeing-777 LRs around 2 years ago for operations to the Far-East & North America.They are still an airline in expansion mode & would break even only by 2010 or -their main aim is to be hub player ala Singapore Airlines & Emirates.Hence buying 80 widebodies for delivery after that period makes sense.
This is good. We don't really want Airbus to go completely under, as Boeing still needs some competition to keep them innovating.
A phantom order for a vaporware aircraft.
Qatar is probably just hedging their bets. If the A350XWB ever comes to be, it is worth it to them to just jump ahead in delivery dates, since the 787 production is spoken for long into the future.
But the Russians are just playing games, as Russians do. It is getting to where you can't take anything those jokers do seriously. It's all political/gangland B.S. with them.
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