Airbus sees A350 orders soon, sources eye Virgin deal

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By Tim Hepher

DUBLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Airbus expects to announce orders for A350-900 and A350-1000 jets in the coming weeks, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Dublin, Chris Buckley, executive vice president for sales, said demand for the biggest twin-engined jets had slowed recently after a run of sales.

The largest A350 model, the 366-seat A350-1000, has been through a lean two years while sales for rival Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) 777s have also slowed, industry figures show.

"Very few airlines in the past few years have placed a new order for that type of aircraft," Buckley said in an interview, but added: "I think we are extremely confident that we will have some more interesting A350 announcements in the weeks and months to come."

These would involve the A350-900 and A350-1000 versions and Britain's Farnborough Airshow in July could be a target, he said.

Two industry sources said earlier that British airline Virgin Atlantic was near to finalising a deal to buy close to 10 A350-1000 jets, worth $356 million each.

One of the sources said the airline could purchase eight of the jets. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) has been negotiating for several months for an aircraft purchase in talks first reported by Bloomberg News.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said: "We are currently evaluating our future fleet requirements to ensure that any new aircraft we introduce will provide the best possible outcome for our customers and our business. We have not yet confirmed our decision but we will provide an update as soon as we can."

A spokeswoman for Airbus said: "We do not comment on discussions with our customers."

Boeing has said the A350-1000 has been overtaken by two upgraded models of its 777 family.

Each says it offers the more efficient jet, but Airbus stepped up its marketing rhetoric on Thursday by borrowing a page from Boeing's history in its rival's centenary year, referring to the now-retired 747 Shuttle (Taiwan: 2405.TW - news) carrier.

"An A350-1000 can carry an A320 on its back ... just like the Space Shuttle, and that would equal the weight of a 777-9. So why go for the 777 and carry around all this metal?" Buckley said.

He said Russia's aviation market had bottomed out following the bankruptcy of Transaero, which had reduced capacity and offset a 14 percent drop in traffic.

"It is a natural leveller and the general feeling is that things have been at the bottom and are starting to get going again," Buckley said. (Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Conor Humphries and Susan Fenton)