Australia's Virgin Blue Orders Five Boeing 737
Bloomberg
Australia's Virgin Blue Orders Five Boeing 737 Airplanes
Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd., Australia's second-biggest airline, ordered five more Boeing 737 aircraft in the airline's bid to take market share from bigger competitor Qantas Airways Ltd.
Chicago-based Boeing disclosed the order on its Web site. It's worth about $200 million, based on the low-end of Boeing's catalog prices that don't include discounts often offered to customers.
Virgin Blue had as of last week purchase rights to buy 50 aircraft for the next decade and has captured 30 percent of Australia's air-travel market in three years. Boeing has 212 orders this year, down from 220 through November last year. The total includes 30 orders from Chinese airlines last week.
Boeing's shares fell 16 cents to $39.24 at 3:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had risen 25 percent over the past year.
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