News items.

[u]Airbus says Emirates orders 41 planes[/u]

From Reuters.

PARIS, June 15 – Airbus was won a multi-billion-dollar order for 41 passenger jets from Dubai-based airline Emirates , the European planemaker’s head said in an interview released on Sunday.

Airbus President Noel Forgeard told Le Figaro daily that Emirates had ordered 21 Airbus A380 and 20 A340-500 or A340-600 airliners, on top of 22 A380 jets already on order.

He gave no financial details, but based on the list price of the aircraft such an order is theoretically worth up to $8.7 billion. In practice, however, airlines tend to negotiate discounts to the list price.

“The new contract involves 21 A380 in addition to the 22 aircraft ordered previously,” Forgeard was quoted as saying.

“Emirates is also ordering 20 A340-500 and 600, the new long-haul aircraft which came into service last year.”

A copy of his remarks was released ahead of publication on Monday.

Emirates had been expected to announce an Airbus order to coincide with the Paris Air Show, alongside Qatar Airways.

Forgeard told Le Figaro that following the latest Emirates order, Airbus now had 124 “firm orders” for the A380, including an order for six planes for Malaysian Airline System that was in the process of being finalised.

Forgeard said earlier on Sunday he was sticking with a target of delivering a total of 300 jets this year, signalling that Airbus would beat Boeing in annual deliveries for the first time in three decades of fierce competition.
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Air Canada Announced plans to ground a series of aircraft this summer. This includes the grounding of its entire fleet of Boeing 747 effective on 01Aug03. Air Canada operates 6 Boeing 747s.
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Gulf Traveller Inaugurated operations yesterday with a flight from Abu Dhabi to Jeddah. Gulf Traveller is Gulf Air’s low cost airline however it offers full service. Gulf Traveller will operate 6 Boeing 767-300s and countries served will include Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
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Egyptair Flight MS853, an Airbus A321 en route from Cairo to Khartoum, skidded off the runway on Friday early morning. The aircraft ended up stuck in sand.
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Cathay Pacific Flight CX508, an Airbus A340 en route from Hong Kong to Tokyo Narita, was forced to return to CLK Airport for an emergency landing on Friday when a smoke alarm was activated around 10 minutes after takeoff. The aircraft landed safely at 1739.
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Indian Airlines Has received a green light for its planned order of 43 aircraft. Indian Airlines had decided in favour of Airbus however Boeing is still lobbying for the deal.
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A UPS MD11 in the airline’s new colorscheme:

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Yemenia Placed an order for 2 Airbus A330-200s. The aircraft will be leased from ILFC.
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Now The new UK low cost has had to delay its start-up. Now is now expected to start operations in Oct03.
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bmi (Jun11, 2003)
An Embraer 145 en route from Leeds Bradford to Paris CDG was forced to make an emergency landing at East Midlands yesterday after one of its engines malfunctioned.
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MyTravel (Jun11, 2003)
Flight MYT897, an Airbus A320 en route from Newcastle to Faro, was forced to make an emergency landing at Newcastle after being struck by lightning on Sunday. The aircraft suffered minor damage with 2 pinhead-sized holes to its fuselage.
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Transavia (Jun11, 2003)
A Boeing 737 en route from Amsterdam to Antalya was forced to make an emergency landing at Budapest yesterday after instruments indicated a problem with one of the engines.
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Good news for Aibus, and Sad to hear that Air Canada will ground the entire fleet of 747’s it has (6).