Paris Air Show
Aerospace |
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Airbus Logs
A $500 Million MOU
Today at the Paris Air Show brought more of the same as the folks from Toulouse announced that the Brazilian airline, TAM, will order five Airbus' A330-200, with another five on option.
The Memorandum of Understanding includes five firm aircraft plus five options, with deliveries to begin in the second half of 1998. The total estimated value, if all 10 are purchased, is $1 billion. No word on when a firm order contract will be signed. TAM plans to operate the aircraft on its new Brazil/USA routes and future destinations to Europe.
"TAM pioneered the introduction of jet aircraft in the Brazilian regional transport, operating 83 aircraft of different types over 107 cities, carrying four million passengers per year. Now, we will launch new intercontinental services, therefore we need a competitive aircraft in terms of comfort, range, speed and economics. The A3330-200 perfectly fulfilled all our requirements and we are convinced of its success on our new routes," said TAM's Amaro. Jean Pierson, managing director of Airbus, said, "We are proud to have a dynamic and profitable airline such as TAM as our first customer for the A330-200 in Latin America. Pierson did not indicate why Airbus has reversed its decision on not
reporting less than firm orders. |
At this event, the TAM
president and chairman, Rolim Adolfo Amaro, joined Airbus to announce that
he sees the A330-200 as the virtual mainstay of TAM's future fleet.
