Emirates orders 60 Airbus planes

He was in this northern port city to take delivery of Emirates' first A380 super jumbo jet.

The long-haul A330 and A350 aircraft have a catalogue price of about $200 million apiece, which would value the order at about $12 billion, though large customers normally obtain discounts.

Emirates is the biggest Middle Eastern airline and has withstood the rising price of jet fuel which has caused major concern for carriers around the world.

The largest customer of the Airbus A380 with 58 on order, Emirates said in June it would launch non-stop service between Dubai and New York on August 1, the first service to the United States with the world's biggest passenger jet.

Other destinations scheduled to be served with the A380 were London, Sydney and Auckland.

"A380 will represent... one of the essential pillars for Emirates' growth in the future," Sheikh Maktoum said on Saturday.

Emirates has had a long wait for delivery of the A380 superjumbo after repeated Airbus delays. The first plane was initially scheduled for delivery in October 2007.

At catalogue prices, the A380 orders were worth some 18.8 billion euros.

In November, Emirates signed a firm order for 70 A350 planes, designed to use less fuel like its rival Boeing 787.

The airline had also taken an option for 50 more Airbus aircraft.

The letter of intention announced here concerned 30 of those 50 planes, bringing firm orders to 100, Airbus said in a statement.

The year has gotten off to a good start for the European plane maker despite problems facing its customers, and Airbus announced orders worth around 40 billion dollars at the Farnborough air show in Britain two weeks ago.

But the second half of the year would probably bring a fall in orders, the plane maker has warned, resulting in total orders this year of around 850 aircraft, below the level posted in 2007.

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