Airbus share soars on record sale
Airbus announced its largest order yet on Wednesday, signing a deal to supply 430 of its medium-range A320 family of aircraft to US investment company Indigo Partners at a list price of $49.5bn.
“An order for 430 aircraft is remarkable,” said Airbus chief operating officer John Leahy.
“But it’s particularly gratifying to all of us at Airbus when it comes from a group of airline professionals who know our products as well as the folks at Indigo Partners do.”
The announcement sent Airbus’s share price soaring, rising by more than 3.0% to €86.09 in a generally softer market.
Airbus’s Fabrice Bergier told AFP at the Dubai Air Show, where the announcement was made, that the contract was a “new sign of confidence” in the European aircraft maker’s jets.
“It’s an overwhelming success for Airbus and its A320 aircraft,” he said. The order is for 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos, the revamped and more fuel-efficient version of Airbus’s most popular singleaisle passenger jet, the A320.
Indigo Partners’ founder and chief Bill Franke said the deal “underscores our optimistic view of the growth potential of our family of low-cost airlines” — Frontier Airlines of the US, JetSMART of Chile, Volaris of Mexico and Wizz Air of Hungary. The final amount of the contract was not revealed, since it is customary for aircraft manufacturers to grant rebates on the list price.
But the contract will more than double Airbus’s current order book for this year, which had stood at 288 aircraft at the end of October. It will also place Airbus, with a total of 718 orders in 2017, ahead of its arch-rival Boeing, which has 605 orders.
It will bring the total number of orders for the A320 to more than 13,700 since the aircraft went into service in 1988, making it one of the best-selling aircraft in aviation history.
Airbus’s total order book should now increase to more than 7,000, giving it enough work for around nine years at the current rate of production. The A320neo and A321neo jets feature new-generation engines that use 15% less fuel compared with their peers.
The total number of orders for A320neos since the aircraft was launched in 2010 now stands at more than 5,500.
By comparison, arch-rival Boeing has received more than 4,000 orders for the different versions of its equivalent aircraft, the 737 MAX.
The deal marks a major coup for operations chief Leahy, who is expected to leave the group soon at the end of a career in which he oversaw the sale of nearly 15,000 aircraft.
Airbus had been hoping to announce the signing of another major contract for more than 30 of its flagship long-haul jet, the A380, to Emirates Airlines.
But the deal has not yet been announced and negotiations are continuing.