CAL plans to purchase 10 Boeing 747-8 passenger planes in 2006

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on May 3, 2006. It reports that Taiwan's China Airlines recently decided to choose Boeing as its next-generation passenger plane supplier, instead of Airbus. The company intends to purchase 10 Boeing 747-8 passenger planes in the near future.

The new planes will be of an advanced model in Boeing 747 family. They will feature long-distant flight and high loading capacity. It is estimated that China Airlines will spend US$2.5 billion on the purchase.

According to this article, China Airlines may sign contract with Boeing for the procurement deal by the end of June 2006 and become one of the first buyers of Boeing's new model plane. Indeed, in recent years, China Airlines has actively purchased new planes to replace the old ones, and most of its new passenger planes are bought from Boeing. More significantly, the company has decided to remove the existing seven A340 passenger planes from its flight fleet in the next three to five years.

According to this article, the Europe-based Airbus recently dispatched its ranking officials to Taiwan in order to persuade China Airlines to purchase its jumbo passenger plane A380. But the attempt has failed.