Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) is renegotiating a massive order it made in 2007 to buy 228 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, a government official said in a report on Friday.
"We are in negotiations" with the European and American constructors, Abdulrahman al-Saleh, the director general of Dubai's finance department, was quoted as saying by The National newspaper.
Saleh was responding to reports that DAE Capital, the parent company's aircraft leasing unit, has stopped taking deliveries and making payments for 118 Boeing and 110 Airbus planes it ordered for a total $28.7 billion.
The negotiations were "positive," he said in the daily Al-Bayan, without giving any other details.
The comments came after French newspaper Les Echos reported that DAE Capital has for several weeks "rejected all aircraft deliveries and stopping making advance payments" related to the 2007 orders.
Les Echos reported that the financial crisis has forced the company to concentrate on Dubai's Emirates Airlines and the new Al-Maktoum International Airport rather than leasing aircraft.
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