"Attractive" Deal Also Includes Four A330s

Airbus is ending what has been its best month all year with even better news: as negotiators with Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd. haggled over compensation for delays in the delivery of its first A380s, the carrier announced Sunday it has firmed up options on eight more of the supersized airliners.

"Our decision to increase our order has been made after an extensive review of the recent problems at Airbus and the delivery schedule delays of the A380," said Qantas Chief Executive Geoff Dixon. "We are convinced that these problems relate to industrialisation issues at Airbus and will be remedied, and in no way relate to the technical capacity of the A380.

"We have negotiated an attractive 'package' to firm up an additional eight A380s," Dixon continued. Qantas now has a total of 20 A380s in the pipeline, with options on four more. The planes are now scheduled to be delivered between 2008 and 2015.

Dixon added Qantas also reached a deal with Airbus for four A330-200 airliners, to "help mitigate capacity concerns associated with the delay of the airline's first A380s."

Terms of the deal weren't announced... although it's a safe bet Qantas paid Airbus nowhere near list price for its latest planes. The A330s will be delivered between December 2007 and December 2008.

According to the airline, terms of the new contract provide, among other things, protection against any further delay in the A380 delivery schedule and slide rights in the event of such circumstances.

News of the additional A380s marks the first new orders for the mammoth plane in close to a year.

FMI: www.qantas.com, www.airbus.com