Lion Air’s deal with Airbus will be signed at the launch of France’s ‘Industry Week’

Airbus has won a historic order worth $20bn (£13.2bn) at list prices from Indonesia’s Lion Air for more than 200 A320 medium-haul jets, beating rival Boeing’s hold on one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines. Uptil now, Lion Air has been equipped with almost exclusively by US rival Boeing. This is the first time that it has preferred Airbus to Boeing. Last year, Lion Air ordered 201 planes from Boeing worth $21bn (£13.88bn) at list prices. A standard A320 model priced at $91.5m (£60.5m) in the deal, is a newer and more fuel-efficient NEO plane and is originally priced at more than $100m (£66.12m).

In a sign of the rising importance of Asian budget carriers for high-tech manufacturing jobs, the deal is set to be announced today at a ceremony to be held in the presence of French President Francois Hollande. The Lion Air deal comes a year after the failed merger plans of EADS with BAE Systems. Lion Air, Indonesia’s top local carrier by number of passengers, is already among the biggest customers of Airbus rival Boeing Co. and turboprop plane maker ATR, a joint venture of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. and Finmeccanica SpA’s unit Alenia Aermacchi SpA.

Last year, Lion Air handed both Boeing and ATR their largest single orders on record by ordering 230 Boeing 737 jets valued at $21bn (£13.88bn) at list prices, in addition to 15 Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliners’ at a list price of $3bn (£1.98bn), and 27 ATR 72 turboprop planes worth $610m (£403m). The news of Airbus winning Lion Air deal comes just days after the EADS subsidiary received an order worth as much as $15.5bn (£10.25bn) from Turkish airlines for up to 117 planes. The order is also centred on Airbus’s A320 medium-haul family.