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Etihad Airways buys 100 Airbus, Boeing planes worth 20 bln dlrs
2008-07-14
FARNBOROUGH, England (AFP) - Etihad Airways stole the limelight at the start of the Farnborough International Airshow Monday, announcing deals for 100 fuel-efficient Airbus and Boeing passenger planes worth 20.4 billion dollars (12.8 billion euros). The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, a nation enjoying the riches of record-high oil prices, revealed its purchases at one of the biggest events in the commercial aviation industry's calendar. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, born just five years ago, added at the Farnborough airfield outside London that it was considering the purchase of an additional 105 passenger planes shared between Airbus and Boeing and worth about 22.6 billion dollars. "This is a momentous day for Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi and represents one of the largest aircraft orders in commercial aviation history," Etihad chief executive James Hogan said of the firm 100 plane orders. "The new generation aircraft we have ordered from both Boeing and Airbus are amongst the most fuel efficient and will help maintain Etihad's fleet as one of the youngest and greenest in the sky," he added. Oil-producing states are snapping up new aircraft thanks to extra revenue earned from rocketing crude prices, which struck historic peaks above 147 dollars a barrel on financial markets on Friday. Soaring fuel costs, along with the credit crunch, are meanwhile encouraging airlines worldwide to invest in more energy-efficient planes and causing others to collapse. Etihad Airways on Monday signed a deal with Airbus to buy 10 superjumbo A380s, 25 extra wide-bodied A350s and 20 single-aisle A320s, which together are worth 11 billion dollars at catalogue price. Also at Farnborough on Monday, US planemaker Boeing revealed that Etihad was the airline behind a deal recently signed for 45 of its mid-sized passenger jets, including 35 fuel-efficient Dreamliners, worth 9.4 billion dollars. Elsewhere on the first day of the British airshow, new low-cost airline FlyDubai signed a deal for 54 single-aisle Boeing 737 passenger jets worth 4.0 billion dollars. Saudi Arabian Airlines agreed to buy eight wide-bodied Airbus A330s worth 1.6 billion dollars. After day one of the week-long Farnborough event, the new Airbus deals totalled 12.6 billion dollars and 4.0 billion dollars for Boeing, excluding its own Etihad deal. Airbus sales chief John Leahy told reporters that the European planemaker hopes to secure 200 new firm orders at Farnborough. The biennial event is a traditional battle ground between Airbus, owned by European aerospace group EADS, and Boeing for securing firm orders. This year's Farnborough event, taking place 60 years since the first show, was attracting the usual mix of industry executives and plane enthusiasts for deal-making and the witnessing of flypasts by civil and military jets. Etihad said it would take delivery of 10 Boeing 777s in 2011 and its 35 Dreamliners in 2015. Airbus will deliver its fuel-efficient planes to Etihad between 2011 and 2020. In other deals, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer signed a contract worth up to 187.5 million dollars for the sale of 10 small aircraft to Austrian budget airline NIKI Luftfhart. Canadian planemaker Bombardier announced Sunday that it planned to launch its eco-friendly CSeries single-aisle passenger jet in 2013 -- a plane it promised would "deliver dramatic energy savings." German airline Lufthansa said it was interested in buying 30 CSeries jets in the role of launch-customer, adding it could increase the order to 60 which would earn Bombardier a total of 2.8 billion dollars. In the first six months of this year, 25 airlines went bust or ceased operating and more could fold as jet fuel prices continued to rise, a spokesman for aviation industry association IATA said last week.
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