Budget airline EasyJet has confirmed an order for 15 Airbus A320s worth approx 1.1 billion dollars each.
The airline, which expects delivery of the aircraft to take place between 2012 and 2012, said that they had “been granted substantial confidential price concessions” from European planemaker Airbus.
Angling for a greater share in the European market EasyJet has also converted a deal for the delivery of 20 A319 aircraft to the larger A320 and also announced it had secured options over a further 33 A320 aircraft, taking its total number of options to 42.
In an announcement the company said the orders “will ensure that EasyJet is able to continue to execute its strategy of carefully targeted growth and take advantage of opportunities for profitable market share gain”.
“EasyJet benefits from flexibility in its fleet planning arrangements and through a combination of the new aircraft order, deferrals and lease extensions means that its growth rate in terms of seats flown can be flexible and dependant on the opportunities available and economic conditions.”
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: “A central feature of the agreement is the flexibility it gives EasyJet to vary the growth rate in its capacity to reflect economic conditions and market opportunities.”
