France based plane maker Airbus may receive about $17 billion in orders from Qatar Airways at the beginning of the Paris air show on Monday, which includes 20 A350-800s, 40 A350-900s and 20 A350-1000s.
Airbus received also a confirmation of a previous order for 80 new Airbus A350 XWB models due from 2013, which will worth $16 billion at list prices, and also three A380s worth nearly $1 billion.
Airbus President Louis Gallois said that Qatar will be the first airline to get the revamped A350 in 2013, as Airbus seeks to make up ground on sales by U.S. rival Boeing Co.
The above deals result will be a big order worth $5.6 billion at list prices for Rolls-Royce, the engine maker offering an engine for the Airbus A350 XWB model.
Rolls-Royce said the deal represents its largest ever firm civil engine order. Rolls competitor General Electric is negotiating with Airbus about providing an alternative engine for the mid-sized long-range aircraft but has not yet.
Industry sources said Dubai-based Emirates is set to place a provisional order worth more than $3 billion for 10 A380 super jumbos. The order will give a boost from the aircraft's biggest customer to the A380 program after a two-year delay. Emirates has completed orders for 47 super jumbos.
Airbus is also working on firm orders from US Airways, which has provisionally ordered 22 A350s.
The Airbus XWB is a bigger competitor to the Boeing 787, which will conquer the market in 2008, some analysts even suggest that XWB may take business away from Boeing's larger and older 777 model.
HISTORY
It began 35 years ago with the world's first widebody twin-engine passenger jet, the A300. Today Airbus, headquartered in Toulouse, France, produces a comprehensive range of 14 aircraft - renowned for their fly-by-wire technology, commonality and extensive use of composites - and employs 55,000 people worldwide.
Airbus, since 2001 a fully integrated single company, started life as a French-German consortium in 1970. Later it was joined by CASA of Spain and British Aerospace. Success grew with the widebody A300/A310 Family, the medium-range single aisle A320 Family and the long-range widebody A330/A340 Family.
Today the product line includes the new 555-seat A380, the world's biggest and most advanced passenger aircraft. Airbus also plans to build the A350, a longer-range twin-engine aircraft. The company's 16 manufacturing sites in France, Germany, Spain and the UK are formed into a range of Centres of Excellence covering all aspects of the aircraft design and production process and are complemented by subsidiaries in North America, China and Japan, as well as a joint engineering centre in Russia. - Alla Harutyunyan for HULIQ.COM
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