National flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia has made a contract worth 2 billion US dollars to buy 28 new aircraft from the US jet-maker Boeing Co., a local newspaper reported Saturday.

The contract is a renegotiation of previous contracts signed since the late 1980s with the world's second-largest commercial aircraft producer, said The Jakarta Post, quoting an official with the company.

The new agreement was signed by Garuda president Emirsyah Satar and Boeing senior vice president Dinesh Keskar in New York on Friday.

In the deal, Garuda will buy 10 Boeing 787-Dreamliners, instead of six Boeing 777s as in previous contracts, and 18 Boeing 737-New Generations to replace older types of Boeing 737s agreed before, said the airline's financial director Alex Maneklaran.

"With current technology, we feel that the aircraft (ordered previously) were outdated," Alex said.

He added the airline had not yet decided how it would finance the purchase. "The management and the financial advisor will work together on the scheme."

As Garuda had paid 20 million dollars of pre-delivery payments in previous contracts, for now, it needs only to add some 6 million dollars to the deal.

The first units of the 737-New Generations would join the fleet in 2009 to serve regional routes, Alex said. The remaining would be ordered gradually until 2012.

The Dreamliners, which can accommodate 240 passengers each, will be delivered between 2011 and 2013. The state-of-the-art aircraft can fly non-stop for 8,500 nautical miles, which means passenger can fall asleep in Jakarta and wake up in London or Vancouver without having to stop in transit.

"(The aircraft) fit with Garuda's business plan," Alex said.

Garuda currently operates 57 aircraft, of which only six are made by Boeing's strongest competitor Airbus. The airline has several times renegotiated deals with Boeing to adjust its plans to market conditions.

Source: Xinhua