McDonnell to Sell 12 Jets to Taiwanese
McDonnell Douglas Corp. said Tuesday that the Taiwanese airline EVA Air agreed to buy up to 12 of McDonnell’s new MD-90 narrow-body jetliners in a deal that could be valued at more than $350 million.
The order is another bit of good news for McDonnell’s Long Beach-based Douglas Aircraft division, which builds the MD-90, the MD-80 twin jet and the wide-body MD-11. Though profitable, the division has long struggled to win a significant number of new orders.
EVA Air, acting jointly with its affiliate Makung International, placed firm orders for six MD-90s and obtained options to buy an additional six. But McDonnell said the order’s price and other contractual details were still being negotiated.
Although McDonnell does not publicly disclose its airplanes’ sticker prices, the MD-90’s list price is thought to be between $35 million and $40 million. But, owing to the fierce competition between McDonnell and its two major rivals Boeing Co. and Airbus Industrie, it is believed that McDonnell is offering to sell the planes for well below the list price.
McDonnell spokesman Don Hanson declined to comment on prices.
EVA Air, owned by Taiwan’s giant container-shipping concern Evergreen Group, already flies six MD-11s. McDonnell said deliveries of EVA Air’s MD-90s, each of which will seat 155 passengers, will begin in the fall of 1996.
Separately, McDonnell confirmed that it is now offering a second type of engine to power its proposed MD-95 jetliner in a bid to secure enough orders to launch the 100-seat aircraft.
McDonnell had planned to offer the MD-95 with only a BMW/Rolls-Royce engine, but an engine made by Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Corp. unit, is also now available, Hanson said. The change was first reported by the trade publication Aerospace Propulsion.
