Northwest Will Buy From Airbus

Tue., June 17, 1997

From Staff And Wire Reports

Northwest Airlines is close to buying $2 billion worth of small jetliners from the European consortium that is a rival of Boeing Co., The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The nation’s fourth-largest airline is negotiating with Airbus Industrie to order 50 of the narrow-body A-319s and for options to buy 100 more of the 125-seat jets, unidentified sources told the newspaper.

The planes would replace some of the carrier’s 727s and DC-9s.

Such a deal would give the European company a boost, but would be less significant than Boeing’s recent long-term contracts with Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, the Journal reported.

Airbus had said those deals were anticompetitive. Last week, Airbus accused Boeing of striking the deals to keep it from building planes.

Neither Northwest nor Airbus would confirm the negotiations.

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Northwest Will Buy From Airbus

Jesse Tinsley

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