British Airways, Boeing reach deal

[Arizona Road Warrior]

British Airways, Boeing reach deal
The Associated Press
Dec. 27, 2007 10:35 AM

CHICAGO - Boeing Co. said Thursday it finalized a deal with British Airways, notching 790 orders for its long-awaited 787 Dreamliner plane during the last three years.

British Airways' order for 24 Dreamliners gives the plane one of the industry's most successful launches ever- even though the airliner has yet to take flight.

The Chicago-based aerospace company expects to fly the first 787 around the end of the first quarter of 2008 and begin deliveries in late November or December. It expects to deliver 109 airplanes in 2009.

You can read the rest of the article at http://www.azcentral.com/business/co...eing27-ON.html

[Ned]

That's one big notch on the belt of Boeing, and a real blow to Airbus who had been pushing like crazy to land BA with their A350. Airbus had supposedly offered major price concessions to BA to try to get the deal done. BA did finally order some Airbus A380 planes in September. The order for 12-A380 planes wasn't surprising, even though earlier BA said they weren't interested in the plane, considering the enormous pressure put on BA by the EU for the Airbus consortium.