AIRBUS HAS NINE COMMITTED CUSTOMERS FOR A330/340
The European Airbus Industrie consortium
has obtained a total of 104 commitments from nine customers for
its planned A340 long-range jet and A330 twin-engined
medium-range jet, the consortium said in a communique here.
    Its supervisory board, meeting in Toulouse, "concluded that
the commercial and industrial objectives ... Have been
fulfilled and that a strong basis for a commercially successful
programme has been established," the communique said.
    But the consortium still has to obtain funding guarantees
from its member governments for the 2.5 billion dlr programme.
    The nine committed customers are well above the five
airlines that the consortium said it needed to launch the plane
project.
    "Therefore the supervisory board has decided to take all
necessary steps for a formal launch decision by mid-April 1987
to ensure first deliveries of the A340 in May 1992, to be
followed by first deliveries of the A330 a year later," it said.
    Airbus is a four-nation consortium grouping Britain,
France, West Germany and Spain.
 REUTER
