Air France-KLM named Dreamliner buyer

Air France-KLM Group is Boeing Co's unidentified buyer for 25 composite-plastic Dreamliners, after agreeing to buy the planes in September without signing off on the order, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The accord was completed just before Christmas, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because the details aren't public. Boeing declined to specify a buyer on January 5 when it disclosed the latest order for the 787s, which has a list value of about $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion). Airlines usually get a discount. Boeing spent most of 2011 with more cancellations than orders for the 787, which entered service in October after more than three years of delays. Because Air France-KLM didn't sign the deal when it was announced on September 16, the planes hadn't been counted in Boeing's tally. Finishing the sale in the final days of the year pushed the Dreamliner's 2011 total to 13 net orders. Air France-KLM, Europe's largest carrier, is struggling with an earnings slump and is preparing to announce cost-cutting measures this month as part of a "transformation plan" to be outlined by May or June. The Paris-based airline's board meets this week. Marc Birtel, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing, said he couldn't comment on the buyer's identity. Jean-Charles Trehan, an airline spokesman, didn't return telephone messages left for comment. Boeing rose 0.6 per cent to $73.98 Friday at the close in New York, the third advance in the first four trading days of 2012. Air France gained 3.9 per cent to €3.96 in Paris. The Dreamliners were part of a split order at Air France, with the carrier saying in September it also would buy 25 Airbus A350s, a 787 competitor set to reach customers in 2014. Stefan Schaffrath, a spokesman for Airbus, declined to say whether that order had been signed. Deliveries of the Boeing and Airbus jets in that purchase were set to start in 2016, with Dutch unit KLM getting the first arrivals, according to a statement in September. The company said at the time that the deal was "still subject to the finalisation of discussions with the manufacturers." Air France ousted Pierre-Henri Gourgeon as chief executive officer a month afterward, as the airline grappled with a declining profit outlook and regulators' revelations about cockpit confusion before a 2009 crash in the South Atlantic that killed 228 people.