Guy Norris/FARNBOROUGH
McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) is in final negotiations with USAir for a huge MD-95 twinjet order, thought to include more than 50 aircraft on firm order and 50 on option. News of the USAir talks comes hot on the heels of the sale of up to 11 MD-12F freighters to Lufthansa Cargo, worth around $1 billion.
If confirmed, the MD-95 order will be a major breakthrough for MDC, which is anxious to bolster credibility in the programme with a new order, following the problems experienced by launch customer ValuJet. Senior company officials are thought to have returned to the USA on 3 September from the Farnborough air show in an attempt to close the deal.
Negotiations with Virginia-based USAir have been going on for some time and apparently became protracted over the airline's insistence on order terms similar to those obtained by ValuJet. These were believed to include a unit price of around $18 million for 50 firm orders and 50 options.
MDC has stuck to a higher price, saying that such a low price cannot be repeated, particularly given the possibility that it will have to honour the ValuJet MD-95 contract.
USAir operates a fleet of 40 Fokker 100s, a type of a similar size to the MD-95. The aircraft would replace more than 60 MDC DC-9-31/32s and augment the 64-strong fleet of Boeing 737-200s which the airline is having fitted with Nordam hushkits.
The Lufthansa Cargo MD-11F order covers five firm orders worth $550 million and options for seven. The first five are scheduled for delivery from mid-June 1998, with all firm deliveries due by the end of the year. Optioned aircraft would be available from 2000 and continue through 2001. The MD-11s are the first new MDC aircraft for Lufthansa since it bought DC-10s in the 1970s.
Firm MD-11 orders stand at 180, with 154 delivered. The freighter version is increasingly popular, with orders now totaling 38 from operators such as EVA Air of Taiwan and US parcels-carrier FedEx.
Source: Flight International
