BA to purchase Airbus, Boeing planes worth $8.2bln

British Airways announced an order worth $8.2 billion for 36 Airbus SAS and Boeing Co. planes, looking beyond Boeing on long-haul routes for the first time. The carrier will buy 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 12 Airbus A380 superjumbos, to be powered by Rolls-Royce Group Plc engines.

“In the engines, the choice of Rolls-Royce was because British is best,” said BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh.

The 525-seat A380s will fly on routes to Hong Kong, Los Angeles and San Francisco and the smaller 787s on New York and extra destinations. The order will help increase capacity by 4 percent annually.

Walsh told reporters the airline would best use the superjumbo for its limited take-off slots at London's swarming Heathrow airport. Also, he rubbished the speculation that the company was under political pressure to buy the superjumbo, the wings and engines of which will be built in Britain.

According to analysts BA had possibly received significant discounts as Boeing and Airbus fought out to gain the high-profile orders.

The new planes are to be delivered between 2010 and 2014 and will replace 34 existing long haul planes, mostly Boeing 747s.

Airbus is due to deliver the first A380 for commercial use to Singapore Airlines next month. Bagging the order from British Airways will have significant importance for the European plane maker.

The A380 doubledecker has a seating capacity of 853 passengers but will probably carry about 650 people since airlines install premium seating, which takes up more space. It is however, far wider than the Boeing’s jumbo, which is popularly used on long haul routes by BA and can only carry up to 351 passengers.

Shares of British Airways went up as much as 14.75 pence, or 4 percent, to 383.75 pence and traded at 382.25 pence as of 9:16 a.m. in London. The stock has slumped 28 percent this year, valuing the company at 4.4 billion pounds ($8.9 billion).