All Nippon to Order Boeing 50 7E7 Planes Worth $6 Bln

April 26

All Nippon Airways Co., Asia's second- largest carrier by sales, will
order 50 7E7 Boeing Co. aircraft worth about $6 billion, becoming the
first airline to commit to using the proposed plane.

Deliveries of the plane, dubbed the ``Dreamliner,'' will start in
2008, the Tokyo-based airline said in a faxed statement. The $6
billion value of the order is based on list prices, Boeing said in a
separate statement.

Chicago-based Boeing is relying on the 7E7 jetliner to help it grab
back leadership of the global market for commercial aircraft that it
surrendered to Europe's Airbus SAS last year. Analysts expect the new
plane to cost $10 billion to develop.

``Airline interest in the 7E7 has been extraordinary,'' said Alan
Mulally, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in a
statement carried by the PRNewswire. The 50-jetliner launch order is
Boeing's biggest ever for a new commercial airliner, the company said.

The 7E7, Boeing's first new jetliner in more than a dozen years, is a
model that promises to use as much as 15 percent less fuel than
existing aircraft of the same size. The 200- to 300-seat 7E7 is
intended to help Boeing win new orders from cash-strapped carriers and
help match Airbus. Airbus last year overtook Boeing in deliveries to
become the world's biggest maker of commercial aircraft.