Boeing wins $13.7 billion in orders
600s and two Airbus A310Fs.
Industry analysts had expected Emirates to place orders with both Boeing and European rival Airbus Industries at the Dubai air show.
In China, the Boeing 737 deal was announced by the official Xinhua News Agency as Bush met Sunday with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Beijing often announces large purchases of American airliners in connection with visits by U. S. leaders in an effort to mollify Washington’s frustration at China’s surging trade surplus. Xinhua gave only the catalog value of the planes and didn’t say what Chinese carriers would pay for them. Buyers typically negotiate hefty discounts on sizable orders. They are to be delivered between 2006 and 2008 to Chinese carriers Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines, according to Xinhua.
It said the planes were being bought on behalf of the airlines by a state- owned company that imports aircraft. That company “will soon sign another purchase agreement with Boeing for 80 more B737 aircraft,” Xinhua said. Hu told Bush that China would take steps to reduce its trade surplus with the United States but didn’t discuss specific measures. China’s trade surplus with the United States hit a record $ 162 billion in 2004 and is expected to pass $200 billion this year.
Boeing says it expects Chinese carriers to buy more than 2,600 new aircraft worth $ 213 billion over the next two decades as the country’s economy grows and more people travel.
Kuwait- based Jazeera Airways also announced Sunday that it agreed to buy six Airbus A320s, bringing the total number of that aircraft type in its fleet to 10. The low- budget, no- frills carrier expects to take receipt of the new planes sometime between 2007 and 2010. No value for the order was given.