Airbus unveiled its first customer for the beefed up version of its A350-1000 wide-body plane on the second day of the Farnborough Airshow as Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific said it planned to place an order worth up to US$4.2 billion at list prices.
Since announcing bigger Rolls-Royce engines and pushing back the development of the jet by two years at last year's air show in Paris, Airbus has failed to win any customers for the revamped version of the carbon-composite plane, reported Reuters.
Airbus says the future 350-seat passenger jet will be much more efficient than Boeing's 777 but has so far been unable to make a significant dent in the 777's hold on a lucrative corner of the jet market, just below 400 seats.
Cathay on Tuesday broke the drought, saying it plans to order 10 A350-1000 jets and convert 16 of the 36 A350-900 jets it already has on order to the new model, the two firms said.
Cathay said the Airbus deal still had to be approved by its board at a meeting in August.
Cathay CEO John Slosar said he was confident Airbus was doing all it could to avoid further delaying the entry into service of the A350-1000, but that Cathay had contingencies in place.
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Source: cargonewsasia
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