Airbus wins Saudi contract for 4 A320 jets

European aerospace giant Airbus said Monday it had won an order worth some $375 million from a new Saudi Arabian airline for four A320 jets. The planes will be delivered at the beginning of next year, Airbus said. SaudiGulf is expected to start flights in early 2015 and will operate initially out of Dammam, then Jeddah and Riyadh. "The A320 is the ideal machine for our company, offering a perfect combination in terms of performance, reliability ... as well as a high-level of comfort for passengers," said Tariq Abdel Hadi Al Qahtani, president of the holding group that owns the airline. Since the A320 came into service in 1988, 6,000 jets have been delivered to more than 400 airlines, making it the second best-selling machine after the Boeing 737.