The IndiGo order is the biggest ever in terms of aircraft numbers - but may soon be topped 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.
AirAsia is expected to top IndiGo's deal with an order for 200 revamped A320neos and options to buy 100 more.
“Start Quote
End QuoteThough slightly modified, the 150-seat passenger jet itself is not new. But its engines are - and they are much better than anything else currently on offer”
Airbus, owned by EADS, has left rival Boeing far behind in terms of orders at the event, 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.
According to the BBC's aerospace industry specialist, Jorn Madslien, the A320neos are proving popular because their two new engines are 15% more fuel efficient and 30% cheaper to maintain than current models.
But Airbus' success leaves Boeing with a very tough dilemma, our correspondent at the air show says.
The US planemaker's A320 rival is the 737, but the plane is very low, so fitting modern, fuel-efficient engines under its wings would be a tight squeeze.
Making it happen would require a new undercarriage, which is costly and difficult, as well as time-consuming, he says.
0 comments:
Post a Comment