£4 billion pound plane order for British Airways

British Airways has announced a plane order worth £4 billion at list prices today. The order includes 12 A380 superjumbo planes from Airbus and 24 787 airliners from Boeing Co.

The new planes will replace 34 of the airline’s longhaul fleet. Both aircrafts will be powered by Rolls-Royce engines which said it could make up to $5 billion from the deal.

A spokesperson for BA said the A380 will be used to provide more capacity for the airline’s key high-density markets and maximise use of limited Heathrow slots.

The airline has organised for a group of banks to provide $1.5 billion of debt financing to cover all of the airline’s firm orders for the next 4 years.

The aircraft is to be delivered between 2010 and 2014 and BA has taken options for a further 7 Airbus superjumbos and 18 of Boeing’s Dreamliners.

BA concluded that it was considering aircraft to replace its remaining 37 Boeing 747s and is examining the Boeing 777-300 ER, the Airbus A350XWB, as well as a stretched version of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, the 787-10, which is yet to be launched.

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