KLM buying six Airbus A330s

FARNBOROUGH, England, July 22 (Reuters) – KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will announce an order for six A330 airliners from Airbus SAS on Monday, boosting the European firm’s backlog despite a global aviation slowdown, an industry source said.

No value for the transaction was immediately available, but six A330s are worth around $700 million at catalogue prices, before routine discounts.

The airline will also announce at the Farnborough air show that it has rights to buy a further 18 A330s on terms already agreed, the source said.

Earlier this year KLM ordered 777 wide-body jets from U.S. manufacturer Boeing Co (BA) and said that it planned later to buy an unstated number of A330s from Airbus, which is majority owned by Franco-German EADS (EAD) (EAD).

The supplier of the A330’s engines was unknown, but the airline is a loyal customer of General Electric Co (GE) of the United States.
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