Airbus flies higher as orders of £15.4bn are landed
By Russell Hotten Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/03/16/cnairbus16.xml
16/03/2007
Two airlines are close to pledging large orders for Airbus's proposed A350 aircraft, giving the European planemaker a welcome piece of good news.
As workers at the troubled company prepare for more strikes, Qatar Airways and Russia's Aeroflot said they were interested in orders worth $30bn (£15.4bn) at list prices.
Qatar said it aimed to buy 80 A350 airliners worth $17.2bn, one of the biggest orders in Airbus's history, while Aeroflot said it would order 22 of the same aircraft "in the coming weeks".
With the €10bn (£6.8bn) development of the longhaul A350 still in progress and some funding issues unresolved, two such orders will be a boost for the company. Shares in Airbus's parent, EADS, rose almost 3pc on the news.
Plans for the A350 were withdrawn after poor customer feedback, and the aircraft was reborn with an extra-wide body, costing twice as much to develop. Qatar was to have been the launch customer for the original A350, saying in 2005 that it wanted about 60.
Aeroflot had previously looked to buy the Boeing 787 instead of the A350, but it suspended negotiations with the US group at the end of February because of political tensions between Russia and the United States.
The Airbus news comes as thousands of workers in France and Germany prepare for strike action against the company's intention to shed 10,000 jobs. Airbus employs about 12,000 people in the UK, but its two sites are not involved in action.
Airbus has been hurt by delays to its A380 super-jumbo, leading to cancellations and costly re-negotiated contracts. Emirates, the Middle East airline and largest A380 customer with 45 ordered, once looked likely to cancel, but has gained a new deal
Yesterday, Emirates' president Tim Clark repeated claims made last year that the A380 was still overweight and would raise costs. Speaking in London, Mr Clark also defended the airline industry against claims it was a leading contributor to climate change. He said people would be better off using low-cost airlines rather than cars, because flying was cleaner for the environment.