Boeing Loses Dubai Aerospace Order for 737s at List Price of $2.3 Billion
By Susanna Ray - Feb 4, 2011 4:36 AM GMT+0400
A Boeing Co. 737 aircraft sits on the production floor of the Boeing final assembly facility in Renton, Washington. Photographer: Daniel
Acker/Bloomberg
Boeing Co. lost an order for 32 737 jets, valued at about $2.3 billion at list prices, from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Ltd., the state-owned leasing and services company that has said it may drop some purchases.
Dubai Aerospace’s current backlog for 737s is 35, according to a monthly update yesterday on
Boeing’s website, compared with 67 as of December. Separately, Boeing’s weekly order report showed 32 orders for the single-aisle aircraft had been canceled, without identifying the buyer.
Dubai Aerospace has been studying whether to scrap more orders as aircraft demand wanes, two people with knowledge of the matter said in December, after canceling plans last year to buy 47 jets from Boeing and Airbus SAS. An e-mailed request for comment to the company’s headquarters before regular business hours today wasn’t immediately returned.
“It would be inappropriate for Boeing to comment on the details of our agreements with customers,” said Marc Birtel, a spokesman for the planemaker in
Seattle, where the company’s commercial operations are based.
Dubai Aerospace was set up in 2006, entering the leasing market during the peak of an air-travel boom, with the aim of becoming one of the world’s biggest airplane lessors. Airlines and leasing companies typically don’t pay list prices.
Boeing also won an order for 10 737s from an unidentified customer, according to yesterday’s update. The order and cancellation brought the Chicago-based company’s net orders for the model in January to zero. Boeing won an order last month for two of its twin-aisle 777 jetliners.