Airbus to sell three A380 superjumbo jets to Japan’s ANA Holdings – Nikkei

Thomson ReutersAirbus’s logo is pictured at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse

NEW YORK (Reuters) – European planemaker Airbus has won a deal to sell three A380 superjumbo jets to Japan’s biggest carrier ANA Holdings Inc in a deal valued at about 150 billion yen ($1.25 billion), the Nikkei reported.

The planes are to be introduced in fiscal 2018 in routes to Hawaii and elsewhere, the paper said.

Orders for Airbus A380s have dried up in recent years reflecting a fundamental shift in the industry toward smaller, twin-engine planes that cost less to fly than the stately, four-engine jumbos, which can carry as many as 525 passengers.

In November, Boeing Co said it had booked two firm orders for its 747-8 jumbo jet, ending what was shaping up to be a second year without net new purchases of the iconic four-engine plane.

Airbus’s efforts to sell the A380 suffered a setback in 2014 when it canceled a $2 billion contract with Japanese discount carrier Skymark Airlines Inc for six of the superjumbo passenger jets after the carrier struggled to raise cash to pay the installments.

On Wednesday, Airbus said it has pushed back the delivery of its first A320neo aircraft to the start of 2016, missing a goal to hand over the revamped version of the jet to its initial customer by the end of 2015.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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