Airbus Wins $27 Billion in Qatar, US Airways Orders

June 18 (Bloomberg) Airbus SAS, struggling to hold its lead over Boeing Co., won $27 billion in orders and commitments from Qatar Airways and US Airways Group Inc., including agreements for the new A350 widebody plane.
Qatar's order includes 80 A350 XWB airliners and three double-decker A380s, Airbus Chief Executive Officer Louis Gallois said today at the Paris Air Show. US Airways said at the show it plans to order 92 planes, including 22 A350s, 60 planes of the A320 single-aisle family and 10 A330s.
The A350 deals are a boost for Airbus in the most lucrative segment of the $60 billion-a-year commercial aircraft market, medium-sized long-range jets. Boeing has sewn up 584 orders for its 787 Dreamliner, which enters service in 2008. Airbus had 13 orders for the A350 before the start of the show.
``With Boeing having orders for about 600 Dreamliners, Airbus still has a lot of ground to make up,'' Craig Fraser, a fixed-income analyst at Fitch Ratings Ltd., said at the show. ``Given Qatar's prior commitment to the plane, it's not entirely a surprise. But it definitely helps the A350 program.''
The Qatar A350s are worth $16 billion at catalog prices. The three superjumbos take the total order value to $17 billion at list prices.
Airbus also won a commitment today from Emirates, the largest Mideast airline, to buy eight A380s valued at $2.55 billion. A final purchase would take Emirates' total order for the double-decker plane to 55.
A380 Savings
Emirates expects the A380 to bring fuel savings of between 15 percent and 18 percent compared with a Boeing 777-300, President Tim Clark said.
The carrier also plans to buy 100 mid-sized, long-range planes and will choose between the A350 and Boeing's rival 787 ``in the next few months,'' Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al- Maktoum said.
The so-far unfinished specifications of the A350 were not a concern because Qatar had been an ``instrumental'' Airbus customer in shaping the new plane, Chief Executive Officer Akbar al-Baker said at a press conference. ``The aircraft definition is very tailor-made for Qatar Airways.
``We're going to add two new destinations, Geneva and New York,'' closely followed by new services to Washington, al-Baker said. The carrier will take delivery of its first A350 in 2013, Airbus said. The new planes will eventually replace the A330s in Qatar's current fleet.