Kuwait in $4bn Boeing, Airbus talks

Kuwait is in talks with Boeing Co and Airbus SAS on buying about 36 aircraft for around $4 billion, a source close to the negotiations said on Tuesday.

Last month state-owned Kuwait Airways cancelled an order for 19 passenger planes worth about $3 billion from a local leasing company after parliament refused to approve funding.

Kuwait's transport minister now heads a committee comprising Kuwait Airways officials mandated to negotiate with Airbus and Boeing.

The committee "is due to present a report to parliament on what to buy, after two months", said the source, who declined to be identified.

"There have been talks with the two companies."
Kuwait Airways lost most of its fleet - 15 planes - during Iraq's 1990-1991 occupation of the Gulf Arab oil producer, according to its Web site.

The Middle East's fourth-largest oil producer is looking to buy Boeing 787 and Airbus A320 aircraft, said the source.

A 787 costs as much as $200 million, depending on specification, and an A320 about $136 million, according to the Web sites of the two plane makers. The source did not say how Kuwait would fund the purchases.

The state-owned, loss-making airline may spend as much as $6 billion to replace and expand its fleet, Chairman Talal Mubarak al-Sabah told Reuters in April.

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