Cyprus Airways is stepping up pressure on Boeing and Airbus in a bid to get the rival aircraft manufacturers to sweeten the $600 million deal to replace the airline's ageing fleet, officials said Monday.
"We have been trying to get both companies to lower their final price on their respective bids," Cyprus Airways board chairman Charis Loizides told reporters after a briefing of the House Finance Committee.
With just days before Cyprus Airways is expected to announce the winner of the contract to replace its dozen Airbus aircrafts, the airline is trying to play the rival companies off each other in a last-ditch attempt to clinch a better deal.
Boeing and Airbus have been locked in a fierce campaign over the last year to woo Cyprus Airways, as both companies vie for market supremacy in a lucrative region. Cyprus Airways has been flying Airbus aircraft exclusively for the last 18 years and Boeing is eager to regain a foothold.
Boeing and Airbus representatives have been shuttling back and forth to the island in recent weeks to wage a media blitz that at times has turned nasty with each side trading barbs on the merits of the other's offer.
Boeing regional sales director Steve Aliment called Airbus's avionics "Pacman" variety, referring to the popular but simplistic 80s computer game. "Their efforts to promote their products by demeaning ours is strange," said Airbus spokesman Kostas Rapis.
The airline already postponed a decision on the winning bidder last month, but Cyprus Airways spokesman Tassos Angeli said a final decision is expected within a "maximum" two weeks. Angeli said both companies have "fine-tuned" their offers to make them more attractive to the airline, but did not reveal how.
House Finance Committee Chairman Markos Kyprianou said the body is less concerned with the type of aircraft that will be selected than with how that choice will make state-run Cyprus Airways more commercially viable. — (AFP, Nicosia)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
