French plane firm Airbus soars ahead with record order

Indigo Partners, a US firm, ordered 430 medium-haul A320neo and A321neo jets from the Toulouse-based company, at a cost equivalent to over USD $50 billion, according to reports.

The order is the biggest single sale in Airbus’ history, and is set to double its number of net orders this year - up from the 288 planes it had sold up until the end of October - pushing its total number of orders for 2017 to 718.

It also means that the European giant will overtake its US rival Boeing, which has sold 605 planes so far this year. It will also see Airbus take 55% of the global market, and push the number of models sold above 5,500, since the launch of the A320neo in 2010 (compared to the 4,000 orders seen at Boeing since the launch of the rival 737 MAX).

Investment group Indigo Partners has bought the Airbus machines to use in its ‘low-cost’ plane rental service, which was founded by the American, Bill Franke; considered to be one of the airline industry’s most influential figures.

The sale is a triumph for the company’s ecological credentials too: the “neo” suffix denotes the company’s ‘new generation’ style of jets, with engines that use 15% less fuel compared to the previous models of A320 or A321, or rival Boeing’s 737 design.

Similarly, Airbus could see yet more orders before the year is out: this week it signed a provisional agreement with Kuwaiti company Wataniya Airways - which operates medium-haul flights across Europe and the Middle East - for a possible order of 25A320neo jets.

It is also still undergoing negotiations with Middle Eastern airline Emirates - of the biggest early adopters of Airbus’ giant A380 - hoping to keep its business onside, despite the company’s recent announcement of a 40-plane order for Boeing’s rival 787-10 Dreamliner.