Business | Aviation
Qatar Airways orders 30 Dreamliners, worth $4.5b
Qatar Airways has placed firm orders for 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners - a deal worth $4.5 billion at list prices, company officials familiar with the deal confirmed to Gulf News here on Sunday.
- By Saifur Rahman, Business News Editor
- Published: 20:09 July 9, 2007
- At the 787 rollout programme, Qatar Airways was shown as a customer although the deal has not been announced officially yet.
- Image Credit:
Everett, Washington: Qatar Airways has placed firm orders for 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners - a deal worth $4.5 billion at list prices, company officials familiar with the deal confirmed to Gulf News here on Sunday.
"Yes, we have signed firm orders for 30 Dreamliners with Boeing and this fills an important gap in our fleet expansion plan," a senior Qatar Airways official told Gulf News during Boeing's 787 rollout event on Sunday at Boeing's assembly plant in Everett, Washington.
At the 787 rollout programme, Qatar Airways was shown as a customer although the deal has not been announced officially yet.
A senior Boeing official involved in the deal, confirmed, saying, "Yes, it's a done deal. The firm orders have been signed by Qatar Airways already. However, the customer chose to remain silent."
Boeing's orderbook shows 40 unidentified B787 customers, in addition to 23 B777, six 747s and 69 737s orders by unidentified customers.
"The 80 A350s we have ordered at the Paris Air Show, won't be available to us till 2013. So, the Dreamliners will play an important role in filling a gap in our expansion plan," the Qatar Airways official, requesting anonymity, said. Launches flights to Washington
These are in addition to an undisclosed number of Boeing 777s that Qatar Airways will begin receiving from October this year.
Orders for these aircraft have been signed but not announced. Qatar Airways, which operates an all-Airbus fleet, have been maintaining silience on the deals for unexplained reasons.
"We will make a big announcement before the end of the year, close to the Dubai Airshow. The announcement could be at the Dubai Airshow although I am not sure at the moment.
"We will begin receiving Boeing aircraft from October on a regular interval," he explained.
Although he refused to give the details of the deliveries, the possibilities are amongst the 777s and 747s.
Analysts say, most lilkely it would be 777s.
Qatar Airways, flag carrier of the oil-rich Gulf state, is one of the fastest growing airlines in the Middle East. The still loss-making carrier has a fleet of 60 aircraft. This is expected to double in about five years, making it one of the largest Arab carriers. Saudi Arabian Airlines and Emirates are the leading Arab carriers, having a fleet of 100 plus aircraft each.
Qatar Airways is launching flights to US capital Washington DC in a week's time, just within a fortnight of lunching flights to New York.
"We are launching flights to Washington next week, following last week's launch of New York flights," the official said.
This would be first direct flight between Washington and any Gulf state, and increases the Arab carriers' penetration into the North American markets.
Emirates and Etihad both operate flights to New York while Etihad also flies to Toronto. Emirates will start flights to Toronto in October and to Houston, Texas in December.
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