BA in talks for more new superjumbos
PARIS: Airbus SE is in talks to sell new A380 superjumbo planes to British Airways (BA) this year after securing a programme-saving deal from Persian Gulf operator Emirates, according to people familiar with the matter.
The United Kingdom carrier, which currently has 12 A380s in its fleet, had said in the past it was looking for six to seven second-hand A380s. Now it was considering taking a larger number of new ones, said the people.
Airbus’s outgoing head of sales John Leahy said on Bloomberg Television on Friday he was confident the European planemaker would secure one more A380 order this year. That customer was BA, the people said.
BA is interested in the superjumbo because of the jet’s ability to maximise the number of passengers per flight at its London Heathrow hub, which is running close to capacity limits.
The carrier’s main focus is on North Atlantic routes that are among the world’s busiest longhaul services, and it ranks as the No. 1 operator of Boeing Co’s 747 jumbo, the second-biggest passenger plane after the A380.
BA was examining a deal for new planes after concluding that refurbishing used examples of the Airbus behemoth for its own needs would be too expensive, said one of the people. The carrier’s superjumbos are fitted out in a four-class configuration featuring 469 seats, according to its website.
IAG chief executive officer Willie Walsh has been mulling the business case for second-hand A380s for as least two years, with planes becoming available as the oldest ones come off lease from Singapore Airlines Ltd after a decade of service. Walsh also ran the rule over six younger aircraft deemed surplus to requirements at Malaysia Airlines.
An order for new double-deckers from IAG would help vindicate Airbus’s efforts to save the A380, which Leahy said on Monday might be scrapped after failing to attract a buyer for more than two years. That was before Emirates announced its deal for 36 planes worth US$16 billion.
While the order may keep the A380 production line going for more than a decade, follow-on orders from carriers such as BA are, therefore, still vital in lifting the annual tally to a level where Airbus can break even on each plane. Bloomberg