CEO Says Airline Will Order 80 Planes

Score another needed victory for Airbus, and its upcoming A350 XWB. On Tuesday, Qatar Airways -- launch customer for the original A350 -- announced the airline will transfer its original 60-plane order over to the new plane, and will even add 20 more.

"We have got what we want from them," Qatar CEO Akbar al-Baker told Bloomberg, adding a firm order for 80 XWBs will likely be signed at the Paris Air Show in June.

As Aero-News reported, Qatar threatened last year to cancel its orders for the A350 and opt for Boeing's 787 Dreamlner instead. But that was before Airbus went public with the redesigned XWB, which incorporates greater use of weight-saving composite components. After a series of negotiations between the two entities, reports surfaced last week Qatar had agreed to remain an A350 customer.

"We persuaded Airbus that the 350 that they had previously launched was inadequate," al-Baker said. "The only thing it had was a new engine."

Earlier this month, Airbus Chief Operating Officer John Leahy said money had been set aside to offset the price difference between the old and new planes, to entice buyers to hold onto their A350 orders.

Mainfirst AG analyst Will Mackie said the Qatar order gives Airbus something it hadn't been able to claim for the updated XWB: a groundswell of orders.

"It's clearly a large foundation stone in the process of constructing an order backlog for the A350," said Mackie.

al-Baker added a letter of intent for the order will come within "one week, 10 days, two weeks."

Including Qatar's probable order, Airbus may now claim 113 commitments for the A350XWB. Russia's Aeroflot has said it will soon firm up an order for 22 of the aircraft, and Finnair has ordered 11 of the new planes.

The A350XWB's competitor, the 787, has almost 500 orders to its credit. The plane is also scheduled to arrive on the market four years before the XWB will take to the skies.

FMI: www.airbus.com