AirAsia seen near $12 billion Airbus A330neo deal

FARNBOROUGH: Malaysia's AirAsia group is close to a deal to become the first airline buyer for the newly launched Airbus A330neo with an announcement possible at the Farnborough Airshow later on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said.

The provisional deal between AirAsia and the European planemaker could involve around 50 of the revamped wide-body jets, equivalent to at least $12 billion at list prices.

Airbus declined to comment.

The planemaker's sales chief John Leahy said, while announcing a separate deal with leasing company Avolon for 15 of the same aircraft, that he hoped to introduce an airline customer within the next 24 hours, but declined to elaborate.

If confirmed, the deal would most likely make AirAsia's long-haul affiliate AirAsiaX the first carrier to order a fuel-saving model that it has long been pressing Airbus to build in order to help it compete on long routes.

However it was not immediately clear how many, if any, of the commitments would replace 38 outstanding orders which AirAsia already has in place for the existing version of A330.

A person familiar with the airline had told Reuters it would be interested in converting part of those outstanding order into the revamped model. But Leahy told a news conference on Monday he did not expect more than a few conversions from old orders.