10/25/2013

Dubai Air Show approaches: it's "U-Turn Al" Showtime again!

Every politician knows it: things can change! But there is no competition to as fast as things change in Doha at the headquarter of the 5 star airline Qatar.
Not long ago Qatar was seen as one of the launch customers for the Boeing B777-X. In fact it was the chief itself claiming that the airline wants to be the first customer for the new aircraft family - Aspire Aviation just yesterday published a long piece about the B777X and speculated about the first customers.
But now everything has changed - at least in the mind of "U-Turn Al" (it is about time that he gets an entry in wikipedia I guess). Suddenly Qatar Airways is "not interested" in ordering the B777X.
For now, we should add - or for just that event yesterday in Doha. Of course, things could change again. And Qatar might want to be the launch customer for...well - maybe the A350-1100, because John Leahy told him that this aircraft would be better? Just a very wild guess and I find it's more likely that Al will turn his stance again and order the B777X after Boeing gave him the right discount.

1 comment:

  1. Oh no, not again. Is that U-Turn All lining up to purchase something that he's telling anyone who cares to noticed that he's not interested?
    I wonder what kind of a discount is he shooting for.
    But, as the buyer with the sack full of cash, why wouldn't he be looking to get an edge.
    I wonder what the sale guys at Boeing and Airbus are thinking when reading (or hearing) something like that from Mr. Al Baker. I supposed that 4, 5 years ago this would it been considered terrible news coming from the CEO of Qatar Airways, now? They probably look at each other and think, "here we go again."

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