Airbus wins $16B Qatar Air deal for A350s

Paris -- Qatar Airways pledged Wednesday to buy 80 Airbus A350 jets for $16 billion, in the first major commitment to the European plane maker's new long-range jet.

A draft contract signed in Paris calls for the 300-passenger wide-body jets -- which have only 13 firm orders compared with 584 for rival Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner -- to be delivered in 2013, the first year the A350 is scheduled to enter service.

Boeing has said it plans to deliver the first Dreamliners next May.

The A350 -- which Airbus claims will have 10 percent lower maintenance costs than the 787 -- got the go-ahead from Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. in December after airline customers rejected two earlier designs.

Airbus has had a hard time renegotiating orders it won for earlier A350 versions.

Beyond Qatar Airways, which originally agreed to buy 60 of an earlier design, Airbus hopes to convince US Airways Group Inc. to stick with the program and buy 20 to 30 of the redesigned A350s, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.