The European aircraft maker Airbus announced Thursday at Paris Air Show that it had orders for 261 planes, valued at 29.278 billion dollars, which would double the value of Boeing's orders for 146 planes at 15.197 billion dollars.

According to Airbus' director of communications John Leahy, it will have a firm order for 100 A320 planes from an Indian client, Indigo, as well as an order for eight A350s, valued at six billion dollars at listed prices.

The Indigo's order came after India's largest domestic airline Jet Airways Ltd. announced that it decided to buy at least 20 Boeing planes and 10 Airbus planes A330, with the option to buy 10 more, while Jet's domestic rival Kingfisher Airlines Ltd.

"We are still looking at China, but India is the next big story," Leahy said at a news conference, noting "a dramatic expansion" in the Indian market.

Airbus also announced two other deals Thursday. Brazilian airline TAM ordered eight Airbus A350-900s, its future long-haul carrier, as well as 20 planes from the A320 family, worthy of about 2.6 billion dollars according to Airbus.

The Mexican airline ABC Aerolineas signed a letter of intent to purchase 10 Airbus A320 aircraft, worth 600 million dollars, with an option to acquire 10 more.

Leahy said Airbus would have "two possible announcements" of orders on Friday, one for 40 single-aisle aircraft, "still in negotiation," the other, non-specified, from a "European company."

Earlier Airbus' chief executive Noel Forgeard had announced between 110 to 120 orders were expected for A350 by the end of the week, with Qatar Airways buying 60 A350s at the opening of the Paris Air Show.

Leahy said he expected Airbus to win "twice as many orders" than Boeing at the biennial show that ends Sunday.

Airbus also said it would have 200 new orders between now and the end of the year.

Boeing, which sold late Wednesday 35 single-aisle 737-800s to Alaska Airlines for 2.3 billion dollars, on Thursday had a total of 15.2 billion dollars in orders, of which 6.6 billion were firm. 

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2005)