Fast-growing Turkish Airlines places $9.3 billion aircraft order with Airbus

Airbus SAS won an order from Turkish Airlines for 82 A320-series planes worth $9.3 billion at list prices, capping a week in which it also sealed a deal from Deutsche Lufthansa AG for 100 of the single-aisle jets.

Turkish Air, as Turk Hava Yollari AO is known, will buy 25 A321 planes, together with 53 re-engined Neo versions of the same model and four A320neos for delivery by 2015, the Istanbul-based company said today in a statement.

Europe’s fastest-growing network carrier is seeking to expand the fleet to 375 planes, including cargo aircraft, as it builds its base into a hub for intercontinental flights. The company also has options for 35 more A321neos.

For Toulouse-based Airbus, today’s order represents the third time in four months it has converted a Boeing single-aisle customer. The European planemaker’s chief salesman, John Leahy has set a goal of winning 60 percent of that market.

Editor: Chris Jasper. To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Rothman in Toulouse, France, at [email protected]; Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at [email protected].