South Africa dithers over A400M

The South African government is reconsidering its decision to purchase eight Airbus A400M transport aircraft.

Gary Parsons - 15-Oct-2009

Airbus image

October 15: The South African government is reconsidering its decision to purchase eight Airbus A400M transport aircraft because the price has risen from R17 billion to about R47 billion (€4.3 billion), reports South African newspaper Business Today.

Delays to the project have led to most of the price rises, but the report says that the government is claiming that Airbus has failed to meet some contractual obligations. The government will make its decision in the next two weeks on whether to cancel the order or continue. Cancellation of the order would be a huge blow for Airbus Military as the South African purchase is one of just three outside of the partner nations, sales to Malaysia and Turkey being the other two. Turkey has already reduced its order from 26 to only ten aircraft.

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