AIRSHOW - Emirates in talks with Boeing, Airbus on orders

By John Irish

DUBAI (Reuters) - Emirates airline is in talks with Boeing and Airbus to buy "tens of planes", possibly 777s and A330s, as the airline prepares for the global recovery, its chairman said on Monday.

The Arab world's largest airline, which has $55 billion of orders with the two manufacturers, last week said it might take over orders its rivals are looking to delay or cancel.

"We are in discussions ... there won't be anything at the airshow (but) we are talking to Boeing and Airbus," Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum told reporters at the Dubai Airshow. "It would be in the 10s of planes ... I think we can say 777s (from Boeing) and could be A330s on the Airbus side."

The airline's chairman said any decision would depend "on how fast we can conclude the terms that we want".

"At the end of the day we are not buying chocolate, we are buying aircraft which costs a lot of money," he said.

Presdent Tim Clark told Reuters last week Dubai's state-owned carrier faced delays in delivery of A380 superjumbos slated for mid-2010, a development likely to hit its route expansion plan.

Emirates is the largest customer for the superjumbo, with 58 aircraft on order.

Sheikh Ahmed said the airline had no immediate plans to increase that order and still believed in the plane, which will begin serving the Dubai-Paris route in January.