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Airbus closes more deals
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July 25, 2000: 9:10 a.m. ET
International Lease orders 87 jets, including five A3XX super jumbos
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LONDON (CNNfn) - European aircraft builder Airbus Industrie said on Tuesday U.S.-based International Lease Finance Corp. agreed to buy 87 new jets, including five new A3XX super jumbos, adding to the spate of new orders the plane maker has announced at this week's Farnborough International Airshow in England.
The sale to ILFC is another coup for the Toulouse, France-based maker of commercial aircraft, as it drums up orders for the A3XX. The 555-seat airliner is Airbus's main weapon in the fight to break Boeing's 30-year dominance in the market for planes with more than 300 seats, where the U.S. company's 747 jumbo has long had the field almost to itself.
 The companies did not place a value on the deal, but the list price of an A3XX is around $230 million.
On Monday, Boeing Co. (BA: Research, Estimates) said ILFC, the aircraft leasing unit of insurance company American International Group (AIG: Research, Estimates), placed a 40-plane order, made up of 33 wide-body 777's and seven smaller, shorter-range 737s.
Airbus, which on Monday announced Air France (PAIR) and Dubai-based Emirates would buy 17 of its super jumbos, said the ILFC deal covered 62 of its A320 family of planes and 20 A330-200 wide-bodied jets. The deal also provided for ILFC's possible purchase of up to ten A330-500 planes, subject to the aircraft's launch at a future date.
Airbus sees a market for 1,200 aircraft with more than 400 seats over the next 15 years, while Boeing estimates demand to be just a third of that level. The A3XX, which is expected to cost $12 billion to develop, has yet to leave the drawing board. Airbus needs 52 firm orders before it goes into the production phase at the end of the year.
Boeing Co. expects to start developing its proposed 747X superjumbo airliner in six to nine months, spending about $4 billion on the project
Other orders placed on Tuesday include four Airbus planes for closely held British Midland, and six Airbus A320 jets planes for Nordic carrier Finnair in a deal valued at around $290 million. 
--from staff and wire reports
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