Saturday, November 21, 2009 PARIS: The first Air France A380 super jumbo reached New York with 380 passengers who had bid a total $450,000 in a charity auction organized by the airline.The airline said in a statement that the money will go to the Air France Foundation, which helps children in difficulty. Nearly 90% of the bidders were French, the airline said.Air France is the first European owner of Airbus's biggest plane, which it will fly with 538 seats and is already flown by Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Australia's Qantas.An A380 costs $327 million at catalog prices, more than four times the cost of a single-aisle A320. Airlines often negotiate substantial discounts to the list price.Air France will start full service with the plane on Nov. 23, with daily flights between Paris and New York, and later to Johannesburg.Airbus has taken 200 orders from 16 customers for the A380, of which it has delivered 20.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 HAVANA: Hundreds of wealthy merchants and cigar aficionados from all parts of the world gathered in Havana this week to bid high stakes for humidors full of premium cigars. Cuba's annual Habanos festival ended on Friday night with an auction of ornate humidors of cedar and mahogany stacked with hand-rolled stogies that raised 800,000 euros ($1.09 million dollars). Habanos S.A. executives this month said cigar sales fell 8 percent to $360 million in 2009, so they have created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, aimed specifically at female smokers. Women now make up only 5 to 10 percent of customers for Habanos. But even with the creation of the Julieta, Garcia said Habanos has only modest hopes for 2010 sales, due largely to a weak economy in Spain, the biggest market for Cuban cigars. The flavor of premium tobacco relies on the soil and climate in which it is grown. The western province of Pinar Del Rio, famous fo...
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