Qatar Airways in talks with Airbus to buy up to 15 jets

Qatar Airways is in talks with Airbus to buy up to 15 of the European planemaker’s A330 passenger jets, a deal potentially worth $3.6 billion at list prices, citing production delays to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

“We are talking to Airbus about A330s to fill in the gap that the Dreamliner delays have caused Qatar Airways ... Anywhere between 10 and 15 (aircraft),” chief executive Akbar al Baker said yesterday.

Qatar is among airlines expecting to receive compensation for delays to the delivery schedule for the 787 caused by a series of production snags, and for the grounding in January of Dreamliners already delivered due to battery faults.

Baker said at a press conference in Dubai yesterday that the airline had to forego $200 million in revenue up until April 2013 because of the grounding. – (Reuters)