Airbus Has Plans to Raise Sales to Central America by 72 Percent

Airbus Industry has plans in the pipeline to increase sales of aircraft to Central American countries by as much as 72 percent over the next twenty years for a grand total of $6 billion.

In all, Latin American airlines will purchase a grand total of 1,223 airliners for as many as $100 billion over the next 20 years, according to Airbus Co.´s Marketing Manager Laurent Roauaud.

Mr. Roauaud explained that Mexico alone will require some 321 planes for its own fleet at an overall price tag of $22 billion.

The Airbus senior official pointed out in a press conference that all Latin American airlines combine for 778 aircraft of different sizes and that his European company is planning to supply half of the region´s planes in the next two decades.

At the same time, Airbus Industry also expects unit sales in Latin America to rise 9 percent this year overall, 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.