Kingfisher to buy 50 Airbus planes for $ 7.2 billion

New Delhi, June 20 (UNI) Kingfisher Airlines today agreed to purchase 50 more Airbus aircraft worth 7.2 billion dollars for domestic and international operations.

The agreement is for 15 A350-800 XWBs in addition to the five converted from their original order for the A350, 10 A330-200s, five A340-500s and 20 A320 family aircraft.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman of the UB Group which is the parent company of Kingfisher Airlines, and Mr John Leahy, Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Airbus' customers division, at 47th International Paris Air show in Le Bourget.

''Our strategy at Kingfisher is to open new long haul routes and expand existing ones,'' said Dr Mallya.

''With the A340-500 and then the A350 XWB, we will be able to offer direct routes between India and the United States for example.

The A330 will allow us to expand services to Europe and the A320s will help us to meet demand in our home region.'' Kingfisher has also ordered two versions of Rolls-Royce Trent to power 25 new Airbus widebody airliners. The value of the engine business at list prices is one billion dollars.

The order consists of 20 firm A350 XWB-800 twinjets which are offered with Trent XWB and five A340-500s for which Trent 500 is the sole engine.

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