British Airways parent IAG placed Thursday a multi-billion-dollar order for 37 A320neo jets from European planemaker Airbus, as the aviation industry charts its recovery from the pandemic.
IAG, which also owns Spain’s Iberia, said in a statement that it will convert 12 options into firm orders for A320neos and A321neos.
The London-based airline conglomerate will also order another 25 A320neo family jets with the option to purchase 50 more.
The deal, announced one week after Britain’s Farnborough Airshow, is worth between $4.44 billion and $5.18 billion at list prices depending on the mix of single-aisle aircraft.
The group will decide the number of each type of plane closer to delivery, which is between 2025 and 2028.
IAG added it had negotiated a “substantial discount”, as is common with big orders.
The new fuel-efficient planes will replace IAG’s older Airbus A320ceo aircraft in its short-haul fleet.
“The addition of these latest generation more fuel-efficient A320neos is an important step towards IAG meeting its climate commitments,” it said in the statement.
The announcement comes one week after US planemaker Boeing triumphed with more orders than fierce rival Airbus at the first Farnborough Airshow since aviation was ravaged by Covid.
Global aviation was paralysed by the pandemic, which grounded planes and decimated demand, while the recovery remains fragile.
Aviation still faces headwinds from rocketing inflation fuelled by historically high oil prices, higher wages, labour shortages and supply-chain snarls, while airports struggle with their own labour shortages.
