India’s Flyington Freighters said it would not go ahead with an order of freighters from Boeing after it signed a previously announced US$1 billion order for six A330-200F cargo aircraft from rival Airbus, Reuters reported.

“At this point in time, we are not going ahead with Boeing,” T. Venkattram Reddy, chairman of Flyington Freighters said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony with Airbus.

Flyington Freighters will pay US$175 million for each Airbus plane, said Kiran Rao, executive vice-president for marketing and contracts, customer affairs at Airbus.

He said the first aircraft would be delivered in December 2009 and the remaining five in the following year.

When Airbus announced its order from Flyington Freighters in January, the Indian company said a previous order with Boeing was still in place.

Flyington Freighters said last July it had signed a purchase agreement for four Boeing 777 freighters worth almost US$1 billion at list prices. “We were in preliminary talks with Boeing, but Airbus gave us a better deal,” Reddy said.

The Indian firm plans to start operations in July with two leased Airbus aircraft.