Emirates, the government-owned carrier based in Dubai, said the deal was worth $18 billion, the largest commercial order by value in Boeing’s history.
The 777 “has served Emirates very well in terms of seat costs,” Emirates’ chairman, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, said at a news conference. Fuel costs took a big toll on the airline’s first-half profits, sending them down 76 percent.
Emirates said it had adequate financing in place for 2012, and planned no new bond issue. Sheik Ahmed said the airline, which began a heavily oversubscribed $1 billion bond issue in June, would consider a bond if it was needed and if the timing was right, adding “we don’t have a push.”
Including options to buy 20 more of the twin-aisle 777 and other agreements, the total deal is worth $26 billion, Emirates and Boeing said.
Delivery of the aircraft is scheduled to begin in 2015.
James F. Albaugh, chief of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, said the order would sustain thousands of American jobs. Boeing delivered 127 commercial airplanes in the third quarter, including 100 of its best-selling 737 narrow-body planes and 21 wide-body 777s. Boeing, which is paid for its airplanes at delivery, set its commercial airplane delivery guidance for 2011 at about 480, down from previous guidance of 485 to 495.
A muted air show two years ago came days before Dubai lurched into its own property and financial crisis in 2009, but the city-state has been recovering after a bailout from neighboring Abu Dhabi.
Dubai’s ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, spent hours at the air show, looking at commercial and military planes and touring the floor before taking a seat at the Emirates news conference, underscoring the keen interest that the emirate has in the success of its airline and ambitions for Dubai to become a major hub.
Demand for passenger aircraft has been remarkably robust, led by rising numbers of the middle classes in Asia and the Middle East and a shift of economic power from the West, but some analysts fear contagion from Europe’s debt crisis.
“Nothing goes up forever, but we really believe the demand for airplanes is driven by world G.D.P.,” Mr. Albaugh of Boeing said on the eve of the show.
Increasing competition to sell military hardware to gulf states amid rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear activities also dominated the start of the show and could lead to an increase in military orders.
In a blow to France, an $11 billion contest to sell fighters to the United Arab Emirates heated up on the eve of the event when the Eurofighter consortium disclosed that it had been asked to present its Typhoon warplane to the country’s top military.
A spokesman for the consortium of companies from Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain confirmed a report on the briefing in Flightglobal.com, an industry publication, but declined to comment further.
The briefing by British officials took place in October in response to a request from the Emirates, which have held long-running talks with France over a purchase of up to 60 Rafale fighters built by Dassault Aviation.
The United Arab Emirates have been in talks with France since 2008 but discussions have been subjected to occasional disruption.
The Emirates have also inquired about the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has made it a priority to find a foreign buyer for the multi-role Rafale, billed as one of the most effective but also one of the most expensive fighter jets in the world.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a1f14f7abf8192e9c2c22ef34298a590
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