Airbus Foresees Nearly Double-Digit Sales in Latin America

Airbus Industry expects unit sales in Latin America to rise 9 percent this year, said the plane maker´s deputy director for the region, Rafael Alonso. The European Aeronautics Defense and Space Company (EADS) unit is in talks with new carriers that have been set up in the region, though the A380 super jumbo is unlikely to find a market niche there, he added.

Airbus will sell 370 jetliners around the world in the course of 2005 and the Latin American region is no stranger to that market. Brazil´s TAM, the TACA Group and Mexicana de Aviacion have already voiced interest in buying Airbus liners.

Mexico is going through the best of times with the creation of an ever-growing number of low-cost carriers. Airbus, for its part, is keeping an eye on the Aztec market and other Latin American and Caribbean recipients.

Over the past decade, Airbus has managed to reel in 80 percent of the Latin American market.