European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. will offer prices below its previous ones in order to win a contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with new aerial refueling tankers, German daily Financial Times Deutschland reports Monday, citing industry sources.
EADS’ Airbus unit will set one price for each model, which will be below the prices it had set for the 2008 and 2009 offers, the report says. This would mean the aerial refueling taker based on the Airbus A330-200 would cost at least 10 percent less than its last $184 million offer, the paper reports.
U.S. rival Boeing Co. will have to calculate a fixed price for a modernized version of is 767 model, which hasn’t flown yet, meaning a bigger risk for Boeing, in contrast to EADS, which can rely on already existing models that have been used in over 1,000 refueling actions, FT Deutschland reports.
EADS wasn’t immediately available for comment Monday.
