China orders 60 Boeing Dream Liners
By Gao Desheng and Xu Dashan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-29 10:52

China will order 60 Boeing 7E7 Dream Liner planes worth more than US$7 billion in catalogue value, a well-placed source close to the transaction confirmed to China Daily on Friday.

A preliminary agreement will be signed at 2:00 am (Beijing time) on Saturday in Washington at the United States' Department of Commerce, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The planes will be allocated to six Chinese carriers after delivery.

Li Hai, president of the China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group Corp, is due to sign a contract with Boeing's Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, Bloomberg quoted a Boeing statement as saying.

Xiamen Airlines, based in eastern China's Fujian Province, will get three of the new planes when delivery begins in 2008, its company secretary Huang Xin was quoted as saying.

The planes will be handed out to the Chinese airlines based on their needs and application, he said.

The order from China's airlines is the largest single purchase for Boeing's latest aircraft model and the first from China.

The deal comes as Boeing rival Airbus has been making inroads in the Asian markets which Boeing long dominated.

Airbus said on Friday it would sell five of its A380 aircraft, the world's largest jets, to China.

A general terms agreement for the purchase was signed in Paris at 1:00 am (Beijing time) between China Aviation Supplies Import and Export Group Corp, China Southern Airlines Co. and Airbus.

The catalogue price for each of the A380 jets was about US$280 million, Airbus said, without mentioning the date for the first delivery.

Earlier on Thursday, Air China said it had agreed to buy 20 of the airline's A330-200 planes.

The Boeing orders are a coup for the US manufacturer as it battles European rival Airbus for customers. They are also a big boost for the 7E7, a mid-sized airliner expected to offer low fuel and operating costs, insiders say.

The 7E7 range will offer models with 217 to 289 seats at a cost of US$120 million each. Boeing missed its target of 200 firm commitments for the 7E7 by the end of 2004 despite late-year deals with Japan Airlines Corp.

The big China order was a positive sign for Boeing's strategy of not taking on the Airbus' double-decker super-jumbo and focusing on a smaller plane aimed at customers who wish to bypass major hubs.

Chicago-based Boeing and its larger rival Airbus SAS are battling for more orders in China, where a decade of 9 per cent economic growth has annually increased demand for air travel.

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