A Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" aircraft
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Purchase of Boeing 787s Will Be Authorized, With One Day Delay
The Board of Directors of the Russian airline Aeroflot will meet on Friday instead of today to discuss the likely purchase of 22 Boeing 787 long-range aircraft for a price of about $2.5 billion
However, this deal does not spell the end of the airline's dealings with the European company Airbus. Aeroflot's management has promised to augment its fleet in the future with the purchase of 22 Airbus A350 planes, in order to bring its long-range fleet to a total of 44 planes. The Russian Transport Ministry, which needs to send the airline's purchase plan to the government for review, had no comment on the delay. However, information that became available late last night indicated that the meeting was postponed until Friday on the request of the presidential administration. Experts say that this points to direct Kremlin involvement in the project and the almost certain adoption at the meeting of the plan to buy the Boeing aircraft.
Aeroflot claims to have two reasons for its likely decision in favor of Boeing. First, Airbus could not give the airline a concrete commercial proposition concerning a possible purchase of Airbus A350 aircraft, the first of which was unveiled this summer. Second, Airbus is modifying its planes to make them larger than Aeroflot can handle: the A350-900/1000 planes will be able to hold 345-390 passengers, while the Boeing 787-8/9 aircraft will hold 265-313 passengers, a number that the airline considers more manageable. In addition, the delivery of the first four Boeing aircraft would be scheduled for 2010, with the rest delivered by 2013, which is another plus over Airbus, which would not be able to deliver the first planes before 2012.
Postponing the decision for much longer could cost the company: Boeing's offer, under the terms of which Aeroflot would pay about $10 million less per plane than the current market price, expires on September 15.
Mikhail Fishman
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 14, 2006
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