Airbus Wins $31 Billion Aircraft Order From Emirates (Update1)
By Massoud A. Derhally and Andrea Rothman
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus SAS, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial planes, won an order from Emirates for aircraft valued at as much as $31 billion, including 70 A350 airliners and 11 double-decker A380s.
Emirates, the biggest Arab airline, placed a firm order for 70 A350s and took options for 50 more, Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said today at the Dubai Air Show.
The deal is a boost for the 300-seat Airbus A350, the planemaker's challenger to Boeing Co.'s 787, which is cheaper and due to enter service five years ahead of the Airbus model. The A380 order adds to the Dubai-owned carrier's backlog of 47, the largest for the superjumbo plane from any airline.
``The 350 was the most suitable aircraft for our type of mission,'' al-Maktoum said at a press conference. Asked why Emirates chose Airbus over Boeing, airline President Tim Clark said: ``The 787-9 wasn't suitable for us and the 787-10 wasn't available to us.'' Emirates is open to talking to Boeing when the 787-10 is available, he said.
The A350 order, including the options, is valued at $27.6 billion at list prices, and the A380s are worth as much as $3.5 billion. List prices do not take into account discounts usually given for large orders.
Boeing Competitor
Boeing hasn't formally offered the 787-10, a longer-range and bigger version of its 787-9. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Scott Carson conceded that Boeing has lost the order.
``Obviously Boeing would like to win every venture we're involved in,'' he said. ``We didn't have the airplane they wanted at this time.''
Chicago-based Boeing, the second-largest planemaker, won an order for 12 of its 777 aircraft valued at $3.2 billion from Emirates, the carrier announced today. Emirates ordered the 777- 300ER model, which has a list price of about $250 million.
Emirates started in 1985 with two leased planes and now has 110 aircraft including freighters. It had 112 planes on order as of Oct. 24. The airline has added destinations in China and India, betting that economic growth in Asia's two most populous countries will spur demand for travel.
Persian Gulf carriers including Abu Dhabi's Etihad, Qatar Airways and Emirates are among the biggest customers for Airbus and Boeing as the airlines build the region into a hub for tourism and transit flights between Europe, Asia and Africa. Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is a division of European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co.
The 555-seat A380 overtook Boeing's 747 as the world's largest airliner after entering service with Singapore Airlines Ltd. last month. British Airways Plc said in September it will buy 12 A380 superjumbos valued at $4.3 billion.
Arab airlines are expected to increase their combined fleet almost two-thirds to 900 aircraft by 2015 from 550 in 2006, according to the Arab Air Carriers Organization.
To contact the reporters on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at
[email protected] ; Andrea Rothman in Toulouse, France, at
[email protected] .