Airbus And Indigo Confirm Record Deal For 180 Aircraft
BBC NEWS. BUSINESS
June 23, 2011: Airbus piled up the orders at the Paris Air Show as it confirmed the largest single order of aircraft in aviation history. Indian budget airline IndiGo is buying 180 planes from Airbus worth about $15.6bn (£9.7bn) at list prices. The deal is for 150 of Airbus' new fuel-efficient A320neo jets and 30 A320s. It follows a memorandum of understanding between the two companies signed in January this year.
More deals are expected for Airbus at the air show, one of them being from Malaysia's AirAsia. Reuters news agency and The Wall Street Journal are quoting industry officials saying that AirAsia will top IndiGo's deal with an order for 200 revamped A320neos and options to buy 100 more.
Airbus, owned by EADS, has left rival Boeing far behind in terms of orders, as high fuel costs increase the demand for fuel-efficient aircraft. The company estimates it has sold more than 700 A320neo jets so far. "There is a possibility that we will be at 1,000 by the end of the show," said Airbus sales chief John Leahy.