Airbus Gets Order for 55 Jets From Qatar Air

Qatar Airways has place an order of 55 planes from Airbus on Tuesday at the ongoing Dubai Air Show, after earlier cancelling the signing of the agreement. The announcement comes a day after Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) announced a record plane order from Emirates Airlines.

Earlier the Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Airways, A slammed the European plane maker by saying that they are still learning to manufacture planes.

The deal was later announced by the Chief Executive Officer himself. The airlines ordered five of the double decker A380 jumbos and also 50 A320neo single lane narrow body planes. According to market listing, the order is worth $6.4 billion. However, Qatar airways ran a tough bargain and could have gotten the planes at much cheaper prices that the list prices. The initial impasse left little doubt about Airbus charging Qatar airways at the listed prices.

The Chief Operating Officer of Airbus, John Leahy jokingly said after the signing of the deal that Akbar unfortunately does not like to pay listed prices. Leahy called the agreement as among their most important agreements, if not the most important agreement.

Also part of the agreement, Qatar Air will be among the first carriers to get the soon to be launched A320neo series of narrow body planes. The A320neo has been the hottest selling plane for Airbus in 2011. The narrow body plane will begin rolling out of the manufacturing lines in 2015. It comes with the promise of higher fuel efficiency, new engine and other features that cut overall noise, when compared to the ordinary A320 planes.

Airbus on Tuesday also signed a memorandum of understanding with Sprint Airlines Inc. of United States for about 20 A320 and 45 A320neo planes. This deal according to Airbus is worth much more than $7 billion based on catalog prices. The deal is set to be completed by the end of this year.

Another purchase agreement was signed with Aviation Capital Group of United States for about 30 A320neo planes. This deal based on the catalog prices in around $2.7 billion.

In another major agreement announcement made on Tuesday, Bombardier Inc. of Canada signed a letter of intent with Atlasjet Havacilik of Turkey. The deal is for 10 CS300 jetliners, along with another five more. The deal is valued at around $776 million.

Qatar airlines fleet is mostly made up of Boeing planes, with an order of 90 planes with Boeing Airlines. The Doha based airlines is challenging its neighbor Dubai based Emirates Airlines to takeover the airspace over gulf.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.