Qatar Airways quiet on Boeing 787 order

This would be funny, if it happened :lol:

Qatar Airways quiet on Boeing 787 order
Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:58 PM ET

NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - Qatar Airways' chief executive on Wednesday declined to discuss whether the Gulf-based carrier has ordered Boeing Co.'s <BA.N> 787 Dreamliners.

An order for 30 787s, worth almost $5 billion at list prices, was recorded on Boeing's online order book in April, attributed to an unidentified customer. People familiar with the deal have said Qatar Airways was the buyer, but the airline has not confirmed the order.

"I think you have to wait," Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said at a media conference in New York on Wednesday, when asked if the airline had ordered 787 planes.

The partly state-owned carrier currently operates an all-Airbus fleet of 58 planes, but has 22 Boeing 777 minijumbos on order.

Al-Baker was in New York to launch the airline's first service to the United States, between Qatar's capital Doha and Newark International Airport, which started on Tuesday.

Qatar Airways, which will also start flights to Washington DC next month, has applied for a code-sharing agreement with UAL Corp.'s <UAUA.O> United Airlines on U.S. routes.

The airline confirmed an order for 80 of Airbus' A350 XWB planes at the Paris Air Show last week, worth about $16 billion at list prices. The airline will be the first carrier to get the revamped A350 in 2013, according to Airbus, a unit of European aerospace group EADS <EAD.PA>.