Airbus lands its biggest single deal with £38 billion order for 430 planes
AIRBUS has landed its biggest single deal with £38 billion order for 430 planes for budget airlines.
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The aircraft giant struck an agreement at the Dubai airshow with Indigo Partners, whose interests include European carrier Wizz Air, US-based Frontier Airlines, Chile’s JetSMART and Mexico’s Volaris, for A320 and A321 energy-efficient planes.
FTSE 250 company Wizz will take 146, with deliveries starting in 2022.
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An order for 430 aircraft is remarkable
The deal between Airbus and Franke’s Indigo Partners is billed as the industry’s largest by number of aircraft.
Airbus sales chief John Leahy said in a statement to the media: “Indigo has been a tremendous customer and supporter of our single aisle fleet for many years.
"An order for 430 aircraft is remarkable.”
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The package technically covers four separate agreements jointly negotiated through Franke as a common investor, and Airbus billed the deal only as a record “announcement”.
Franke did not take part in a signing by airline chiefs.
A person close to the talks said that such “wholesale” aircraft deals could become more common as more private equity and new sources of funding come into the airline business.
