Dubai 2011: Qatar signs $6.4bn deal with Airbus

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker and Airbus COO John Leahy - all smiles again

But by the time the protagonists met in front of the world’s media yesterday they were all smiles again.

The result was a mega-order for 80 A320neos (50 firm and 30 options) and eight A380s (five firm and three options). At book price, the firm orders are valued at $6.4 billion…and Qatar Airways will receive the first of all three A320neo variants.

Airbus later celebrated the deal and described, with a degree of understatement, a day of “tough negotiations”. Despite the mega-deal the potential for further verbal sparring over the A350-1000XWB and a clutch of A330 freighter conversions is ever-present.

While Al Baker’s negotiating tactics can be very public and to the point, Leahy prefers to do his negotiating behind closed doors. The morning began with Al Baker cancelling another media conference. Asked why, he said: “We have reached an impasse because Airbus is still learning how to make aeroplanes. These problems are not about the price but about the terms of the contract.”

Al Baker also said that unless current disagreements were resolved, he would dispose of Qatar Airways’ A330 freighters and buy converted B767 freighters instead “because Airbus is unable to make up its mind”. He said that Singapore Technologies might be able to offer A330 conversions – but that depends on Airbus’ approval.

Referring to recently announced six-month delays from Toulouse to the A350-1000XWB’s EIS, for which Al Baker signed a MoU at this year’s Paris Air Show to buy 80 aircraft, he said he “understood and accepted an insignificant delay of six months, anything further would cause difficulties and we simply cannot accept any further delays”. He also said that performance issues with the A350-1000 were still to be resolved.

“We are still interested in the A320neo but I’m pessimistic about whether we’ll be able to announce anything before the end of the airshow.”

When questioned about the scale of the differences with Airbus, Al-Baker was typically colourful, saying they were “trivial, when compared with the 50-year impasse between the Palestinians and the Israelis”.
 

• Note: Qatar Airways is buying an additional two Boeing 777-200LR freighters. The Doha-based carrier’s cargo fleet currently comprises six aircraft – three Boeing 777s and three Airbus A300s. With existing orders and this latest announcement, the fleet will rise to 11 freighters over the next four years, eight of which will be 777s.
  
  Commenting on the problems encountered a couple of years ago with Boeing over deliveries, CEO Akbar Al Baker said “friends always have ups and downs but it doesn’t mean the end of the friendship, although there are still some unresolved problems”.