EK Says No to A340
Emirates Airline, which operates out of Dubai, has canceled their order for 20 Airbus A340 airframes and may be looking at purchasing several new Boeing 777s instead, according to an unnamed company spokeswoman.
“Emirates confirms it will not be taking delivery of its order and option for 20 Airbus A340-600 aircraft,” an Emirates spokeswoman said.
Emirates will instead order 777 models from Boeing Co., Emirates Executive Vice Chairman Maurice Flanagan said, the Wall Street Journal reported.
777 airframes cost between $178 million and $264.5 million each, depending upon the model and options, according to Boeing’s price guide. An order of twenty or more of them would mean a huge boost for Boeing’s sales figures this year. Emirates also ordered ten 747 airframes from Boeing earlier this year, according to Boeing’s order sheet.
I believe this has everything to do with Airbus’ horrible management of the A380 program. If they aren’t careful, Emirates may be canceling that order too:
[Emirates President Tim Clark] also said Emirates will send engineers to check on A380 production plants in France and Germany. The engineers will examine how Airbus managers are resolving industrial problems that have pushed production of the world’s largest passenger plane two years behind schedule and more than one-third over its original $12 billion budget, the paper said.
Hat tip to the Airliners.net message boards for this story.
