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QR orders up to 60 A350s

This is from airbus.com - I don't see the split of firm vs options yet.

Quote:

June 13, 2005 QATAR AIRWAYS ORDERS UP TO 60 A350S Qatar Airways announced today its decision to order up to 60 A350s becoming the largest customer for the aircraft so far.

Speaking at a press conference at the air show, Sheik Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Chief Executive Officer, declared: “The order was made after a very detailed evaluation and a very extensive analysis. In the end, the commonality with the A330s already in our fleet and the advantage of the A350 in terms of seat mile cost were the decision factors.”

The aircraft will complement the A330s and A340s in Qatar’s fleet and provide the airline with enhanced range and superior flexibility for missions ranging form short-haul regional routes to long haul routes to America.”

The order is evaluated at 10.6 billions US dollars. The A350s, a mix of A350-800s and –900s are planned for delivery from mid-2010 to 2015.

Doha based Qatar Airways is the largest all-Airbus operator in the Middle East. It boasts a growth rate of 40 per cent year on year. Qatar is also about to introduce in its fleet the A340-600 high gross weight for which it is launch customer.

They went for 20 777s as well I believe.

How does this square with Airbus saying a few days ago they were putting off an A350 go-ahead decision for 3 months ?

I would imagine it has changed their minds.

Centre cities

Quote:

I would imagine it has changed their minds

Not sure ... I can't believe that the Airbus board didn't know a few days ago that Qatar were going to say this today !

I think the postponement of the "official" launch of the A350 is in order to give time for negotiation/argument with the US/WTO over launch aid rather than anything else. Clearly it is not preventing Airbus getting on with their marketing and sales activity.

If they officially launch the A350 now, an obvious question is "how much launch aid is going into financing the development?" and then it turns into an Airbus vs Boeing argument again. Might as well attempt to resolve the trade dispute first.