All Nippon Places $1.5-Billion Order for 11 Boeing Jets

In the second big Japanese deal with Boeing announced this month, All Nippon Airways said Tuesday that it will buy 11 Boeing 747 jumbo jets and spare parts worth a total of $1.5 billion. Japan Air Lines said last week that it intends to buy five 747s and six 767s for $869 million.

All Nippon Airways, which began operating between Japan and the United States last July, hopes to increase the number of flights and destinations between the two countries. Less than a year ago, it signed contracts for 25 Boeing 767-300 aircraft worth $2.36 billion, so the new order will bring the total to just under $4 billion.

Delivery is to begin in July and continue through 1992.

The company is considering buying engines from Pratt & Whitney or General Electric but has not ruled out Rolls-Royce, said Akio Kondo, the airline’s deputy president and chief operating officer.

Negotiations With Pilots Union

Kondo told reporters in Washington that the specific model of 747 aircraft will depend on negotiations with All Nippon’s pilots over whether the union will accept the two-member cockpit crews that will man the advanced, 500-passenger 747-400, which is to start rolling off the assembly line in late 1988. Other models require three cockpit crew members.

“We’d like to buy 400s,” Kondo said.

The latest Japanese orders are a rebound for Boeing, which was stung on Oct. 1 when Northwest Airlines agreed to buy up to 100 planes for $3.2 billion from Airbus Industrie, the European consortium that has emerged as a major competitor.

The $3.9 billion in orders are the equivalent to 7.8% of last year’s $50-billion trade deficit between the United States and Japan, Kondo pointed out.

All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest domestic carrier, said in Tokyo that it plans to operate eight of the new planes on overseas flights. The three other jumbos will be used by Nippon’s affiliate, Nippon Cargo Airlines.