Emirates cancels Airbus A340 order, wants 777s instead

Emirates cancels Airbus A340 order, wants 777s instead

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Story Published: Oct 30, 2006 at 6:50 AM PDT

Story Updated: Oct 30, 2006 at 6:50 AM PDT

By Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Dubai's Emirates Airline is canceling an order for 20 large jetliners from Airbus and will use Boeing models instead, an airline spokeswoman said Monday.

"Emirates confirms it will not be taking delivery of its order and option for 20 Airbus A340-600 aircraft," an Emirates spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified further because she was not authorized to speak to the media, said the company was "sending a team of technicians from its engineering department in mid-November to Toulouse in order to assess if the revised timings we have been given for the delayed delivery of our A380s are achievable."

Emirates will instead order 777 models from Boeing Co., Emirates Executive Vice Chairman Maurice Flanagan said, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The switch - which follows Clark's complaints last year about the high operating cost of the A340 family of planes - shows how Boeing is benefiting from troubles at Airbus, a unit of Franco-German European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., the paper said.

Emirates President Tim Clark said Emirates is also interested in acquiring proposed passenger versions of Boeing's planned 747-8 jetliner, an update of the four-engine model introduced in 1969. Emirates would only do so if Boeing stretches the design a bit to increase seating capacity, Clark said, according to the newspaper. In July, the carrier ordered 10 of the cargo version of the 747-8.

The 747 is Boeing's largest aircraft and competes to some extent with the A380, Airbus's jumbo jet in production.

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.

With the order of 45 Airbus A380s, Emirates is Airbus's largest customer for the 555-seat double-deck aircraft, in a deal worth a total of roughly $13.5 billion.

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