Arik Air orders 2 Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental

Boeing and Nigeria's Arik Air today announced a deal for two 747-8 Intercontinental airplanes. The order is valued at $635 million at list prices and was previously attributed to an unidentified customer on Boeing's website. The order was announced during a signing ceremony at the Corporate Council for Africa's 8th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Washington, D.C. "Air travel within the region continues to grow at a rapid pace and we must prepare our fleet to accommodate that growth," said Sir JIA Arumemi-Johnson, owner and chairman of Arik Air. "Boeing's new 747-8 fits perfectly into our long-term planning. It brings the best operating economics for its size, which is important with the increase in fuel prices."

Arik Air is Nigeria's fastest-growing privately owned airline operating a large fleet of Boeing Next-Generation 737s and serves more than 22 domestic, six regional and three long-haul routes. The airline plans to use the 747-8 on its key long-haul routes. "Arik Air is growing to become a leader in aviation in Africa and Boeing is happy Arik will use the 747-8 as a cornerstone of their future growth," said Van Rex Gallard, vice president of Sales for Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "With its unmatched operating costs and economics, the 747-8 is the right airplane to help Arik Air meet growing demand." The new 747-8 Intercontinental features a new wing design and an upgraded flight deck. The airplane interior incorporates features from the 787 Dreamliner including a new curved, upswept architecture that will give passengers a greater sense of space and comfort.

Using General Electric's GEnx-2B engines, the airplane will be quieter, produce lower emissions and achieve better fuel economy than any competing jetliner. It also increases cargo volume by 26 percent. "As we look into the future, the 747-8 Intercontinental is a must have for Arik Air," said Sir Arumemi-Johnson. "Our airline strives to bring the best, most efficient and most modern products to our customers and that is exactly what this airplane is."

AirFrance-KLM splits orders worth $12 billion between Airbus and Boeing

Air France-KLM has split a $12 billion order for long-range jets following a year-long competition, announcing plans to buy 25 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 25 Airbus A350s. The move is part of a plan to renew the fleet of Europe's largest airline and the order could rise to 110 of the next-generation aircraft including 60 more options. EADS unit Airbus said it expected to receive 35 of these. Air France-KLM shares opened up more than 1 percent before slipping 0.5 percent to 6.035 euros by 4:26 a.m. ET. Shares in Airbus parent EADS were down 1.1 percent.

The deal follows months of politically sensitive negotiations during which the airline appeared to be pulled between pressure from French politicians to protect jobs at Toulouse-based Airbus and its own differences with Airbus over what caused the 2009 mid-Atlantic crash of an Airbus jet. The airline believes pilots have been wrongly blamed. Air France-KLM has said it ignored calls from French politicians to favor Airbus, but in a sign of frosty relations it snubbed the usual practice of endorsing the Airbus part of the deal in the planemaker's press release.

Boeing is delivering its first 787 Dreamliner to Japanese airline All Nippon Airways next week after three years of production delays as it switched from aluminum to lightweight carbon composites. Airbus plans to deliver its similar A350 mid-decade after earlier delays in the design. Air France-KLM said it aimed to operate 73 of the 250-300 seat aircraft through 2024, including 43 Airbus A350-900 and 30 Boeing 787-9 models. The first Boeing 787-9 will enter into service with KLM in 2016, and the first Airbus A350-900 with Air France in 2018. "Later, both airlines will operate both types of aircraft," the carrier said in a statement. The airlines merged in 2004 but maintain separate networks.

Final details of the order are still being negotiated. The firm part of the order for 50 aircraft is worth $6.7 billion to Airbus and $5.5 billion to Boeing, according to list prices. Airlines usually obtain significant discounts. Air France-KLM indicated in June it would follow United Airlines in splitting the order for the new generation of aircraft between Airbus and Boeing. The plane order guarantees business for Britain's Rolls-Royce (LSE:RR.L - News) to provide power for the A350-900, for which it makes the only engines currently on offer. But industry sources say rival General Electric is front-runner to power the Boeing 787s, for which it competes with Rolls-Royce. Air France traditionally buys long-range engines from the U.S. company.

Big orders help AirBus

Airbus said on Monday it had won an order for 60 narrow-body A320neo planes worth $5.1 billion at list prices from the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of General Electric. Analysts expect narrow-body planes, the backbone of fast-growing budget airlines, to be a key battleground for orders between Europe's Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing at the biennial air show. Airbus believes it has the upper hand with the A320neo, whose more efficient engines save airlines 15 percent in fuel costs, according to the company. Engine maker Pratt & Whitney boss David Hess said on Monday he expected an astounding amount of demand for the A320neo. Sources close to the matter said Airbus was also likely to report an order on Monday for 30 A320neos worth about $2.4 billion at list prices from Scandinavian airline SAS.

Qatar Airways said it hoped to conclude a deal this week to buy A320neo planes as well. Boeing conceded it might lose some customers while it makes a decision about whether to re-engine or redesign its competing 737 narrow-body plane, although it was confident of winning out over the longer term. It also upstaged Airbus with successes in other plane sizes and booked the first big order of the show for six 777-300ER wide-body jets worth $1.7 billion at list prices from Gulf carrier Qatar Airways. Analysts expect Middle Eastern and Asian airlines to dominate the buying as they seek to boost transport links for their booming economies. The Boeing deal came a day after Airbus unveiled plans to boost the range of its future competing A350, of which Qatar is the biggest customer.

Home made Supersonic fighter jet 'Tejas' handed over to IAF

Inching closer to modernisation with self sufficiency, India's first homegrown supersonic fighter jet, the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas', was handed over to the IAF by Defence minister, A K Antony after the Initial Operational Clearance. The LCA, which has remained under development for nearly three decades and braved technology denial regimes, has achieved the significant milestone in the presence of Defence Minister A K Antony and Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik. Post clearance, the LCA will now take several flying missions and after that it will have to obtain its Final Operational Clearance (FOC) to be finally inducted into operational service, which is likely to happen by the end of 2012, Ministry officials said.

The IAF has plans to deploy the aircraft at one of its bases in Bangalore to do away with the "teething problems" in association with its designers and manufacturers, both of whom are based out of Bangalore. Being India's much-awaited project, LCA design and development by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was initiated in 1983 with a budget of Rs 560 crore. Nicknamed 'Tejas' in 2004, the LCA designing had been launched in 1985 by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the DRDO with HAL as the nodal manufacturing agency.The aircraft's development was affected by the US sanctions imposed in 1998 also led to delay in importing some items and developing alternate equipment, since vendors identification and development to production cycle took time. Now the IAF intends to induct two squadrons in IOC mode by the middle of 2011. The IAF had first placed the orders for 40 LCAs in March 2005.

The first 40 LCAs will be powered by the American General Electric GE-F404 engines. A total of 99 such engines are to be purchased under the deal with General Electric. IAF also has plans to induct five more squadrons (100 aircraft) in the coming years but with a more powerful engine, the announcement for which came in 2009. The government had a couple of months ago chosen GE-F414 as the new engine for future LCAs after rejecting its competitor Eurojet's EJ200 engine. The IAF may ultimately have around 200 LCAs (10 squadrons) in its fleet, primarily to replace the ageing Russian MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighter jets. IAF will base the first of its LCA squadrons at its Sulur air base near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.