Airbus to sell 430 planes to US PE firm Indigo in record $49.5 bn sale
15 Nov 2017 9:55 PM IST
Dubai: Airbus announced on Wednesday that it will sell 430 airplanes to US firm Indigo Partners for $49.5 billion in the European firm's biggest deal ever.
The announcement came at the Dubai Air Show and the deal includes 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos. The airlines that use the aircraft will include Frontier Airlines, JetSMART of Chile, Volaris of Mexico and Wizz Air of Hungary. A320neos list for $108.4 million apiece and A321neos at $127 million. Airlines and manufacturers often negotiate lower prices for big deals like these. Indigo Partners is a Phoenix-based private equity firm.
It owns Denver-based Frontier Airlines and owns part of Mexico's Volaris. It's managed by William Franke, a pioneer of the cheap tickets and high fees airline business that has spread overseas and is growing in the United States.
Airbus' previous biggest-ever sale came in August 2015, when it sold 250 A320neos to Indian budget airline IndiGo, a deal estimated to be worth $26 billion at list prices. IndiGo and Indigo Partners are separate firms with separate management.
Until Wednesday, the only major deal announced at the Dubai Air Show came on Sunday, when long-haul carrier Emirates purchased 40 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners in a $15.1 billion deal. Airbus, which is based in Toulouse, France, has pinned hopes of continuing production of its A380 double-decker jumbo jet on Emirates, the world's largest operator of the aircraft.
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