Airbus wins aircraft orders potentially worth $5.4b

European aircraft maker Airbus on Wednesday announced deals for its planes worth up to $5.4 billion (4.4 billion euros). Airbus said at the Farnborough airshow that it had won a firm order from US leasing company CIT for 10 of its long-haul A330 planes worth $2.3 billion at list prices. “When a leading leasing company like CIT, places a repeat order for our aircraft, we take that as a strong sign of customer satisfaction,” said Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregier. Airbus added that Hong Kong-based China Aircraft Leasing Company had committed to buy 36 of its A320 single-aisle planes together worth $3.1 billion. “This is an important milestone for CALC,” said the Chinese group’s chief executive Mike Poon. “We have a long-term commitment to the aviation industry and are very pleased to establish a relationship with Airbus.” The deal includes a commitment to buy eight A321s, the largest member of the A320 family, but none of the manufacturer’s future A320neos. Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS, did get a firm order from the aerospace division of CIT Group, a transport finance and leasing company, which has ordered 10 mid-sized long-haul A330 aircraft, in a deal that has a list value of $2.3 billion. The deal includes five that were ordered earlier this year, and deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2014. With this new order, CIT now has a total order book of 162 aircraft scheduled for delivery through 2019. “The A330 is already the market’s favorite long-range aircraft, but we don’t stop there; we are continuously improving the A330 with, for example, new weight variants which offer more payload-range capability,” said Fabrice Bregier, Airbus’ president and chief executive.