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Boeing Ends Dry Spell, Bags $847m Orders

DUBAI — Ending a two-day dry spell at the Dubai Airshow, Boeing clocked its first aircraft orders at the event on Tuesday with sales of 11 next-generation 737-800 jetliners worth $847 million at list prices. The buyers were two Algerian airlines.

The US plane-maker was lagging behind its European rival Airbus without any orders on the first two days at the airshow. Boeing got back into the game with one order for seven 737-800s from Air Algerie and another for four of the same aircraft type from Tassili Airlines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Algerian government’s Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation.

As Boeing announced its first deals, Airbus picked up orders for four jets of its own on Tuesday to boost the total value of orders its has won so far at the show to $4.6 billion.

Airbus announced sales of two A380 super-jumbos to Air Austral and a wide-body A330-200 and a single-aisle A320 to Nepal Airlines Corporation.

Airbus chief salesman John Leahy valued each super-jumbo at between $330 million and $335 million, at catalogue prices. The Nepal Airlines deal is valued at $250 million.

On the first two days at the air show, Airbus won orders worth more than $3.7 billion. These included a $3 billion deal for 12 A350s with Ethiopian Airlines and a $700 million order for 10 A320 from Yemen Airways.

The combined value of orders won by the two transatlantic plane-makers at this year’s Dubai Airshow is only a fraction of the $155 billion in total deals announced at the previous show in 2007. During that event, Boeing and Airbus bagged total orders and letters of intent for at least 458 aircraft worth more than $75 billion, mainly from Emirates Airline and
 Qatar Airways.

The Airbus deal with Air Austral for two high-density single class A380s, each with a seating for 840 passengers, is set to create a record for packing the most passengers in a super-jumbo. Air Austral is based on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

Boeing did not disclose any aircraft delivery schedules and declined to give terms of the deals.

Air Algerie will boost its Boeing 737 fleet to 22 planes, under Tuesday’s purchase agreement. The carrier also operates three Boeing 767-300 planes, Boeing said.

Air Algerie Chief Executive Abdelwahid Bouabdallah called the order “a natural progression” for the airline because its crew is already familiar with the aircraft.

Air Algerie ordered its new 737s with Blended Winglets, which reduce fuel burn by about 4 per cent, 
according to Boeing.

“Air Algerie’s order reflects our company’s solid business partnership of nearly 40 years with the airline and the proven fuel efficiency and reliability of the Next-Generation 737,” said Marty Bentrott, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of Sales for the Middle East, Central and South Asia.

Boeing announced performance enhancements to its new generation of 737s that will reduce fuel consumption by 2 per cent by 2011, through a combination of airframe and 
engine improvements.

The Chicago-based company said it has more than 2,100 unfilled orders for the next-generation 737 valued at more than $158 billion at current list prices.

Among other deals announced on Tuesday at the airshow, Libyan Airlines announced the selection of CFM56-5B engines to power seven Airbus A320 aircraft. The engine order is valued at $95 million
at list prices.

Also, Tunisair placed a $180 million firm order for CFM56-5B engines to power 10 A320 aircraft.


issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com