DUBAI  - State-owned EgyptAir signed a letter of intent (LOI) on Tuesday to order 12 Bombardier CSeries jets valued at US$1.1 billion at list prices.

EgyptAir Chairman Safwat Moslem told a Dubai Airshow news conference the CS300 aircraft would be used by the airline's domestic and regional carrier EgyptAir Express.

“We started our process of analysis of the CS300 six or seven months ago,” said EgyptAir VP of Planning Ehab Ghazy in an interview with BNN. “So this was well before the announcement between Airbus and Bombardier.”

Ghazy added he’s not concerned about Bombardier’s recent delivery delays caused by its engine supplier, noting he expects EgyptAir to “be safe” from that standpoint because of where it stands in the CSeries order book.

EgyptAir is Bombardier's latest Middle East customer, having already signed agreements with Iraqi Airways, Bahrain's Gulf Air, among other regional carriers.

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft President Fred Cromer could not say whether EgyptAir would be the first Middle East airline to operate the CSeries.

No Middle East customer has said when it would take delivery of CSeries jets.

A U.S. trade commission will decide in early 2018 on whether to impose duties of nearly 300 per cent on the CSeries, after Boeing complained the planes had been subsidized and sold below cost in the United States.

Airbus agreed in October to take a controlling stake in Bombardier’s CSeries jetliner program, and has said any CSeries jets intended for the U.S. market would be built at its production facility in Alabama, potentially allowing the planes to avoid punitive duties.

Ghazy told BNN that EgyptAir’s LOI won’t be affected if the Airbus-Bombardier deal doesn’t close.

Cromer said EgyptAir's CSeries jets would be built in Canada, if the Middle East carrier confirms its order.

The LOI also includes purchasing options for a further 12 CSeries which, if exercised, would increase the total value of the deal to nearly US$2.2 billion.

-- With files from BNN