Airbus president and chief executive Noel Forgeard is questioning whether the risk-sharing deal between Boeing and the Japanese aerospace industry on the 7E7 programme breaches World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules on government subsidies.
"We are gathering information to raise the level of awareness for the EU to take a decision," he says. "We want them to be aware of what is happening and to make their own judgement of what to do.
"They are ‘risk-sharing partners'. Will it be risk-sharing if they are backed by the Japanese government?"
Forgeard was speaking at yesterday's announcement of an order by Qatar Airways, for two Airbus A380 ‘superjumbo' airliners, plus two options, valued at $1.2 billion.
Testing
Deliveries are scheduled to begin early in 2009. The airline – the only one to announce aircraft purchases at Dubai 2003 — will use its new aircraft for direct flights from Doha to the USA and Australasia.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said no decision had yet been reached on engines for the new aircraft. "We will make that decision once we see which engine works best in the forthcoming testing and development phase." The options for the A380 are Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 and the GE-P&W Engine Alliance's GP7200.
Dynamic
Al Baker added: "The Airbus A380 is best-suited to our routes. We signed the deal because of the aircraft's performance, economics, price and commercial package. It's a very complex agreement and I'm confident that in due course we will turn our options into firm orders. If we didn't intend to, we wouldn't have taken out the options in the first place."
Qatar's A380s will all be configured with a maximum of 460 seats, the entire top deck being a mixture of first and business class.
The Doha-based airline also confirmed orders for two A340-600 HGW (high gross weight) aircraft with options on a further eight, the value of these being included in orders worth $5.1 billion placed with Airbus at the Paris airshow in June.
Qatar Airways will be the launch customer for the A340-600 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines.
Forgeard added: "We are always encouraged when a young and dynamic carrier such as Qatar Airways – which has built a strong reputation for passenger service – opts to grow and modernise its fleet with our aircraft."
Source: Flight Daily News
