§ Mr. Biffenasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the number of options held by individual airlines for the Concorde aircraft, and also indicate the dates when such options lapse or have to be renewed.
§ Mr. Michael HeseltineThe number of options held by each airline is as follows:
Airline No. of Options Continental … … … … 3 American … … … … 6 Eastern … … … … 6 Braniff … … … … 3 Qantas … … … … 4 J.A.L. … … … … 3 Lufthansa … … … … 3 Air India … … … … 2 Middle East … … … … 2 Iranair … … … … 1 In addition Iranair has signed a letter of intent to purchase ttwo aircraft and the Chinese National Airline have signed 469W a preliminary purchase agreement for three aircraft.
The options require that their holders should decide within a certain period of BOAC and Air France signing firm orders whether or not to take up their reserved delivery positions. These periods have been varied to suit the requirements of the airlines and the manufacturers, and at present the manufacturers have a planned schedule of contract negotiations up to the end of 1974.