Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Airbus wins $3.5bn order for entire SAA fleet

Boeing was dealt a blow on Thursday when South Africa selected Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, to re-equip the entire fleet of South African Airways, the lossmaking national carrier, with 41 aircraft.

http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT30JSRZIYC&live=true&useoverridetemplate=ZZZ3XDHE90C&tagid=ZZZA31PK20C

It is quite ironic that SAA got a good deal on the ex-Swissair A340-600's on account of the downpayment already made by Swissair before its collapse.
And SAA got to buy back SR's share in SAA at a big discount over what SR paid years ago.

All in all, SAA did benefit from its association with SR...

How interesting after the entire Boeing scandal/fiasco over the past few years. Seems like the gov't wanted to make it perfectly clear that they have no tie in with Boeing. Big win for Airbus.