How would you like your 747s with that order?

About two dozen Boeing Co. employees from Everett met with top officials of Dutch airline KLM this week as part of a new program to connect airplane buyers with factory workers.

KLM chief operating officer Peter Hartman and chief purchasing officer Jan Witsenboer are in town to sign the paperwork completing a previously announced deal for 13 747s and 777s.

The meeting was a chance for factory workers to learn more about why customers make the decisions they do, about the kinds of planes they order and the features they want, said Debbie Heathers, a spokeswoman for the 777 program in Everett.

KLM is buy four 777s directly from Boeing and will lease another six from International Lease Finance Co. The airline also plans to buy three 747-400ER freighters.

The deal is worth more than $2 billion at list prices, but it’s highly likely KLM got a discount.

Speaking of discounts, look for yet another jet order from a low-cost air carrier later this year, in a deal that could include some wide-body jets.

Reports out of Spain last week suggest that Preussag AG, Europe’s biggest travel company, plans to buy more than 80 jets by year’s end.

Why now? With the jet market down, now’s a good time to go shopping, Charles Curassa, chief executive of the group’s airline business, told Bloomberg News.

Preussag operates six different airlines catering to vacation travelers and tour groups in Europe. The list includes Hapag-Lloyd Fluggesellschaft in Germany, Britannia Airways U.K. in Britain, Corsair in France, Neos in Italy, Britannia Airways Nordic in Sweden and White Eagle Aviation SA in Poland.

Pressaug hasn’t approached Airbus or the Boeing Co. yet, but Gurassa said last week that it’s looking at a mix of single-aisle jets for short-haul flights —737s, 757s or A321s. It also wants a number of 767s or A330s for long-range flights.

The company wants to start taking delivery of the planes starting in 2004. It will use some to replace older planes in its fleet, and use the rest to build up to a total of 120 jets by 2010.

The Preussag airlines now fly a mix of mostly Boeing jets. Subsidiary Britannia Airways was the first airline outside the United States to fly the Everett-built 767-200.

There are only two big jet manufacturers in the world, and from South America, it looks like only two regional jet makers will survive.

Officials of Brazil’s Embraer told Reuters last week that they expect Fairchild Dornier will not emerge from its current insolvency.

Canada’s Bombardier, which competes with Embraer in the 100-seat-and-under market, is evaluating whether to buy Fairchild Dornier’s stalled 728 regional jet program.

The deal’s not done yet, but that’s not keeping GE Aircraft Engines from taking out advertising in trade magazines touting its engines as the best choice for powering the U.S. Air Force’s proposed new 767 tankers.

An ad in a recent issue of Aviation Week features a photo of fighters refueling at sunset, and proclaims "Some flights aren’t complete without a good drink." GE’s CF6-80C2 is "the one engine that will make sure your buddies get the drink you promised them," the ad concludes.

GE says its engines power two-thirds of the 767s in commercial service.

B/E Aerospace has landed a $60 million-plus contract to supply lie-flat bed seats to Qantas.

The Australian airline plans to retrofit the seats into its existing fleet of 747-400s, starting in 2003, B/E said.

Northwest Airlines and Dutch leasing company debis AirFinance also placed orders for B/E seats last week, leading B/E chief Robert Khoury to predict "a solidly profitable current year."

"A number of airlines have begun to make significant investments in discretionary programs," he said in a prepared statement. More customers are calling looking for price quotes, he added, hinting that the market may have bottomed out.

The headquarters of B/E flight structures unit is in Arlington.

You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454

or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.