MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Forty new aircrafts, and four A380, for Aerolineas Argentinas

Airbus A 380

Grupo Marsans the largest tourism and transport group in Spain announced this week it has ordered 73 Airbus aircraft, including four new A380 “Superjumbo”, for its Air Comet and Aerolineas Argentinas fleets.

Privately owned Marsans said the deal is worth 7.5 billion US dollars at list prices, making it one of the biggest in Spanish aviation history. The Spanish group becomes the second new European customer for the world's biggest passenger plane since 2001, and is the first from Spain. The four aircraft, which can carry up to 853 passengers, will be split equally between Air Comet and Aerolineas Argentinas. Marsans is controlled by Spanish businessmen Gerardo Diaz Ferran and Gonzalo Pascual, who quit his post as chairman of SAS-owned Spanair a week ago to launch a takeover bid for the airline -- Spain's second-biggest carrier. The order includes 10 of Airbus's new A350 XWBs, as well as 42 aircraft from the A320 family and five A330s, which added to 12 A330s bought in December, take the total order to 73. Argentina's flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas spokesman Jorge Molina said the South American airline could receive 40 of the planes in the coming years. He added that the A380 would start operating by the beginning of 2011, probably on the Buenos Aires-Madrid route. "In 50 years Aerolineas Argentinas has never had such a strong investment as these 40 planes," said Molina.