Dubai, Nov 15 (AP) Airbus announced today that it willsell 430 airplanes to US firm Indigo Partners for USD 49.5billion in the European firm's biggest deal ever.
The announcement came at the Dubai Air Show and the dealincludes 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos. The airlines that usethe aircraft will include Frontier Airlines, JetSMART ofChile, Volaris of Mexico and Wizz Air of Hungary.
A320neos list for USD 108.4 million apiece and A321neosat USD 127 million. Airlines and manufacturers often negotiatelower prices for big deals like these.
Indigo Partners is a Phoenix-based private equity firm.
It owns Denver-based Frontier Airlines and owns part ofMexico's Volaris. It's managed by William Franke, a pioneer ofthe cheap tickets and high fees airline business that hasspread overseas and is growing in the United States.
Airbus' previous biggest-ever sale came in August 2015,when it sold 250 A320neos to Indian budget airline IndiGo, adeal estimated to be worth USD 26 billion at list prices.
IndiGo and Indigo Partners are separate firms withseparate management.
Until today, the only major deal announced at the DubaiAir Show came on Sunday, when long-haul carrier Emiratespurchased 40 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners in a USD 15.1 billiondeal.
Airbus, which is based in Toulouse, France, has pinnedhopes of continuing production of its A380 double-decker jumbojet on Emirates, the world's largest operator of the aircraft.
Reports circulated before the air show that a major A380 salewould be coming.
Airbus employees even filled a news conference on Sunday,expecting the A380 sale, instead to find state-owned Emiratesmaking the deal with Boeing in front of Dubai's ruler, SheikhMohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Emirates now relies solely on the Airbus 380 and theBoeing 777 for its flights, making it the largest operator ofboth. It has 165 Boeing 777s in its fleet today and tookpossession of its 100th A380 earlier this month. (AP)SMJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.