Emirates boss says Airbus closing in on Boeing 787

LE BOURGET, France, June 18 (Reuters) Emirates Airlines said it would decide on an order worth as much as billion for mid-sized planes by October and that the design of the Airbus A350 XWB was closing in on Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

Emirates President Tim Clark told reporters today he was ruling out splitting the order for as many as 100 planes between the two manufacturers.

Boeing has accused Airbus of touting an incomplete design to airlines in its bid to draw attention from the hot-selling 787.

Airbus, which revamped and relaunched the A350 last year with a wider fuselage after airlines rejected an earlier design, said it had locked in the plane's main design features.

''We know as much as we need to know about the plane (the A350) to contribute to the decision process,'' Clark said.

''From what we have been given on performance and economics, irrespective of how it is produced, it looks like a good machine,'' he said. ''I think it'll do the job.'' At stake are the fuel-efficiency and other performance measures needed to win control of an estimated market for some 5,000 long-distance twinjet planes over the next 20 years as airlines brace for little relief in high fuel costs.

So far, Boeing is five years ahead of Airbus in terms of development and dominates sales in the segment with nearly 600 orders.

But Boeing's initial success in selling the 787 -- it is sold out until 2013 -- has restored the balance between the two planemakers for potential customers prepared to wait until the A350 enters service from that year.

PREPARED TO WAIT Airbus is resisting pressure from at least one of its customers, major aircraft leasing firm ILFC, to change the way it builds fuselages after Boeingopted for new technology allowing it to build the tube out of composite barrels, reducing parts.

The European planemaker says it will build the A350 out of similar lightweight composite materials but keep them shaped in traditional panels riveted to an aluminium and titanium frame. Clark said he believed Boeing's barrel idea was the plane of the future but would not be a deal-breaker for the next order.

''It doesn't make much difference to me. We'll look at the aircraft for the longevity we need, which is 15 years maximum.'' Boeing's 787 enters service next year, five years before the first A350s to be flown by Qatar Airways, which placed a billion firm order for 80 of the 270-to-350-seat jets on Monday.

''The gap between the two twins has narrowed in the last six months,'' Clark said, speaking after Emirates ordered another eight of the larger A380 superjumbos to bring its order to 55.

Clark said Emirates was prepared to wait to make its decision to get the right plane in the mid-sized sector. It would prefer the A350 to be offered with two potential engine suppliers, rather than the current offering of only Rolls-Royce engines.

General Electric is still in talks with Airbus about whether to put its GEnx engine on the A350 as well as the 787. If Emirates does order the A350 soon, it will probably keep its options open on the engine supplier, Clark said.

Clark said external issues such as Dubai capacity expansion needed to be resolved before the airline could place an order for the A350 or the 787 but that this should be a matter of months.

''We know we'll need 45 to 50 aircraft as replacements (for earlier models). Then growth could take us up to 100.'' To head off Airbus attempts to fight back with its largest version of the A350, Boeing is considering adding a third and larger version of the 787 and has already started offering it on an informal basis to the market as the 787-10, executives say.

The 787-10 being mooted would stretch the 250-290 seat 787-9.

REUTERS PM GC1723