Airbus Withdraws From Japanese Tanker Aircraft Tender Citing Terms Favor Boeing

Airbus has decided not to bid for the Japanese air-to-air refueling tanker aircraft contract worth over a billion dollars citing terms of tender favor its rival, Boeing.

“The RFP allowed Japan to buy tankers under the US government's foreign military sale mechanism, which involves the two governments negotiating the contract directly,” Airbus was quoted as saying in a statement by Reuters Tuesday.

"Airbus Defense and Space regrets that the way in which this RFP has been formulated has forced it to conclude that it would be an inappropriate use of shareholders' funds and company resources to bid on this contract and accordingly the company will not be competing," the company added.

Japan has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP), a Japanese Ministry of Defense spokeswoman confirmed but did not provide other details or respond to the Airbus decision, Reuters said.

Japanese government had in June said that it wants four tankers to supplement its existing four Boeing 767-based tankers.