Thai Airways confirms purchase of 8 Airbus A330s in A380 compensation deal
Bangkok (XFN-ASIA) - Thai Airways International said it has
agreed to buy eight mid-size Airbus A330s at a discounted price, as part of
a deal with the European planemaker over delays in delivering its new A380 superjumbos,
confirming an earlier report.
"Thai Airways confirms that it is buying eight A330s," the airline's president Apinan Sumanaseni told reporters.
The English-language Nation Daily reported earlier that under the agreement, the flag carrier will buy eight mid-sized Airbus A330s at a discounted price of 90 mln usd per plane.
Apinan would not disclose the final price for the planes but said Thai Airways would receive discounts of more than 10 mln usd on each of the Airbus A330s, which normally cost some 100 mln usd each.
"The discount per aircraft is more than 10 mln usd each but we cannot reveal the exact amount," Thai Airways chairman Chalit Pukbhasuk said.
The planes will be delivered over the next five years, beginning in October next year, he added.
The discount is part of Airbus's compensation to Thai Airways over the delayed delivery of its new A380 superjumbos.
The Thai carrier ordered six of the A380s, with all now rescheduled for delivery in 2011 instead of 2009.
Airbus apologized to Thai Airways for delivery delays but the flag carrier threatened to cancel its order if compensation and fines were not agreed.