Airbus Wins Orders From GE Subsidiary
March 28, 2011
TOULOUSE, France -- Airbus Industrie said it won firm orders for 45 jetliners valued at about $2.5 billion from General Electric Co.'s aircraft-leasing unit. The size of the order had been expected, but GE elected for now to order slightly larger variants of some of the European consortium's aircraft than had been anticipated, raising the overall value of the agreement with Airbus. GE, which has now completed its initial strategic move into leasing of new commercial airliners, said it will order 40 of Airbus's A-320 ``family'' of small planes seating 120 to 200 passengers. Much of that part of the GE order will be weighted toward the highest-capacity planes. The big lessor, which until now has focused on leasing used jetliners, also placed firm orders for five of Airbus's larger A-340 models, which seat about 295 passengers. In addition, GE reserved purchase options for another 45 Airbus planes. Those potential orders also would include 40 of the smaller models and five of the bigger four-engine A-340 airliners. The order from Airbus follows a GE firm order earlier this year from Boeing Co. for 107 of that manufacturer's new aircraft. ``We want to be No. 1 in this industry,'' said Jami Jona, president of GE capital aviation services, referring to leasing markets for aircraft. He said, however, that GE hopes to expand the market for leasing of new aircraft by offering extraordinary financial flexibility to carriers that would benefit from being able to lease new planes.
