Airbus receives order for 255 jets in first major deal since Covid outbreak

Airbus has received an order for 255 new aircraft from U.S. private equity firm Indigo Partners in the first significant deal for the company since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Indigo, founded and run by investor Bill Franke, owns stakes in airlines including Frontier in the U.S., Hungary’s Wizz Air, Mexico’s Volaris, and Jetsmart in China and Argentina.

Speaking to CNBC at the Dubai Air Show, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the deal for the A321 aircraft was a “very positive signal that we [are starting] to be on the front foot again.”

The value of the deal for the single-aisle passenger jets has not been revealed, but is believed to be worth billions of dollars.

“It’s an order that takes us into the second half of the decade — that’s very important for Airbus to have visibility on the long term, to plan production as we move from Covid-19 that was [a] constrain on demand, to a world … that is going to constrained by supply,” Faury told CNBC’s Dan Murphy. Read more