Ain Calèdonie International still awaits French

tax officials' green light to buy Boeing-767

NEW Caledonia’s inter national airline. Air Caledonie Internation al, is still waiting final approval from French government’s tax authorities in order to get exemp tions on the planned purchase of a second Boeing aircraft, daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes reported.

In July, following a decision made by its board of directors, Air Caledonie Inter national (Aircalin), announced its inten tion to buy a second Boeing, a 767.

The move was seen as a surprise, as competitor Airbus was also bidding.

Aircalin explained a Boeing would suit better its needs and would be easier to

maintain, because of the large fleet of simi lar aircraft in the region. But the request made to French tax officials by Aircalin to get an exemption (a benefit granted to French overseas territories investment pro jects) was yet to be answered.

The New Caledonian airline had already lost one place in the Boeing production line in Seattle (United States), since the order has not yet been fully confirmed, Aircalin officials told Les Nouvelles.

The company says the original request was made last April and after the decision was made to buy the Boeing, they got fur ther requests from the French tax depart ment on July 9. They claim they answered four days later.

The deadline for French taxes depart

ment to answer the request was July 20, which has now been extended to another three months. The delay was disrupting plans at Aircalin to place an order in time to introduce the B-767 by November next year, company officials added.

It had obtained a small delay from Boeing, which had accepted, as a sign of understanding of the complex administra tive procedure, to push back the ordering deadline, Early August, five senior marketing executives from Boeing, assuming the deal would eventually get the nod from Paris, spent five days in the French Terri tory to further discuss the purchase with Aircalin management. (PINA Nius Online) ■