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Czech CSA

chooses 10 Boeing

737s over Airbus

PRAGUE: The Czech national airline Ceske Aerolinie a.s. (CSA) said on Friday it had signed a deal for the purchase of 10 Boeing B737 passenger aircraft worth $350 million to be delivered between 1997 and the year 2000.

CSA said it had chosen Boeings as replacements for its ageing Russian-made aircraft over similar planes from Europe's consortium Airbus Industrie because it already had Boeings in its fleet and wanted to streamline maintenance and cut costs.

"In our current fleet the are seven Boeings and we have perfect operational experience with them," Petr Plocek, press spokesman for CSA, told Reuters.

"They are economical and powerful planes and we have all the technical support for Boeings...our aim in a certain way is to standardise our fleet...to cut costs," he added.

He said the aircraft will be equipped with engines made by CFMI, a French-U.S. consortium comprised of Snecma SA SNEC.CN of France and U.S. General Electric Co. GE.N.

Engine types for the aircraft were not disclosed.

CSA said in a statement that the contract enables CSA to order either the current model-line of Boeing B737 500 and 400 aircraft or later take delivery of the new-line of B737 600, 700, and 800s which will be launched at the end of this year.

It said the first delivery to the CSA fleet would be made in the first quarter of 1997.

The local news agency CTK quoted Transport Minister Vladimir Budinsky as saying the choice of Boeing over Airbus was based on "price, training, and the future results of CSA."

CSA is 81 percent owned by the Czech government through various agencies. A 19 percent stake in the airline held by Air France was sold back to the Czech government in 1994 after a row over the airline's management.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) continues to hold its 19 percent stake in CSA taken in a privatisation deal after the fall of Communism in 1989.

CSA already has seven Boeing 737s in its fleet, two on a rental programme and five leased-to-own, as well as two Airbus A310-300s long-haul aircraft which are leased-to-own.

There are still seven Soviet-made Tupolev planes in the fleet.

CSA became the first airline worldwide to use the new ATR 42-400 short/medium 42-seat turboprop aircraft made by the Franco-Italian consortium Avions de Transport Regional (ATR), putting two of the planes in service on April 1.

Plocek added that the financial package to pay for the Boeing aircraft was under negotiation with a consortium of Czech and foreign banks, but there had not yet been an agreement.-Reuter