By Dominic Gates / The Seattle Times
The board of All Nippon Airways (ANA) on Tuesday approved a firm order for a dozen Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with an option to purchase five more later, giving Boeing its first sales win of the year.
Based on market data from airplane valuation firm Avitas, the firm order is worth about $1.9 billion after standard discounts.
The new order consists of 11 of the largest model, the 787-10, and one 787-9, with the five options also being 787-9s.
In addition, ANA said it will acquire three new 787-9s from Atlantis Aviation Corp., a virtually unknown company. Atlantis must be one of the 787 buyers listed as an unidentified customer in Boeing’s order tally, perhaps a financial investment company that purchased the planes intending to resell them on delivery.
In January, Boeing marked an all-time low with zero new orders.
Japan has long been Boeing’s most solid market and ANA its most reliable customer. If ANA exercises the five options, which is likely, the 20 new aircraft would bring the total number of Boeing 787s operated by ANA to 103 and make the Japanese carrier the largest operator of the airplane.
“Boeing’s 787s have served ANA with distinction, and we are proud to expand our fleet by adding more of these technologically advanced aircraft,” said Yutaka Ito, ANA executive vice president.
ANA, which was the launch customer for the 787, operates 71 of the jets, with 12 more from its previous orders still to be delivered.
ANA said the 787-10s will replace the airline’s 777 series aircraft on domestic Japanese routes.
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