AIRSHOW-Airbus wins $16 bln of firm orders at air show

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By Tim Hepher and Victoria Bryan

PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) - Airbus had a better Paris Airshow than it expected, winning firm orders for 124 aircraft worth $16.3 billion, as well as commitments for plane purchases worth $40.7 billion, including a last-minute deal with Wizz Air (LSE: WIZZ.L - news) .

The planemaker's chief executive said on Thursday the latest deals confirmed demand was "extremely positive," and queried whether Airbus might have been too hasty in cutting production rates of its A330 wide-body plane to six per month.

"We had again a very successful Paris Airshow, we received orders and commitments for 421 aircraft worth $57 billion," Fabrice Bregier, head of Airbus Group (Swiss: AIR.SW - news) 's planemaking division, told a news conference.

"This was higher than I expected."

That compared with orders and commitments for 331 aircraft worth $50.2 billion for rival Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) .

The Airbus deals included orders and commitments for 24 A330 planes and Bregier said the company needed only a couple more orders to fill production slots for 2016. He said China and India were ideal markets for the new A330 regional jet.

"Perhaps we should not have reduced the production rate of the A330 so much," he said. He later added that increasing the rate back up to eight per month was not on the cards, but that Airbus had flexibility to deliver a couple of extra planes.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Airbus Group have fallen as much as 7.1 percent over the four days of the air show, however, to 3 1/2-month lows, with traders pointing to fewer deals than at many previous trade shows, as well as a rebound in the euro against the U.S. dollar after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled interest rate increases may start later than many anticipated.

Bregier said he believed 95 percent of the 421 orders and commitments received at the Paris Airshow would end up translating into firm orders.

"My mistake was perhaps to downplay a bit at the beginning of the show," he said.

Bregier said before the show he was looking at around a couple of hundred orders.

Sales chief John Leahy also said Airbus hoped to garner at least one order for its A380 jumbo jet before the end of the year. Airbus is looking at launching a version with new engines or as a slightly stretched version as it seeks new customers.

Leahy also raised the possibility of his retirement during the press briefing saying that, as he was 65 years old, he would have to make a decision on retirement and think about his health.

He did not give a timeframe for the decision, but his boss Bregier joked that Leahy could retire within the next 15 years. (Additional reporting by James Regan; Editing by Mark Potter)