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The potential A320 order, which had not been previously
announced, would be worth more than $18 billion at list prices.
"On the order for 184 A320s, it's something that will be
finalised shortly," Macron said during his state visit to China,
adding it was confirmed to him by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"And we also have ambitions on A350 and A380 mid-range and large
carriers in the weeks or months to come," Macron said.
The A320s would be delivered in 2019 and 2020, a French
presidency official said on condition of anonymity.
Ahead of Macron's trip, sources had told Reuters that Airbus was
in talks about an order for 100 or more jets. New jet orders
have historically featured during such tours by French leaders.
While no deal has been finalised over the current official
visit, Macron said China had assured him it would respect
market-share parity between Airbus and Boeing <BA.N>.
China regularly splits large orders between Europe and the
United States to cope with its fast-expanding airline traffic,
but the momentum has recently been with rival Boeing <BA.N>,
which sold 300 jets during a visit by U.S. President Donald
Trump last year.
China, however, placed a large order for 140 Airbus jets during
a visit to Germany by Xi last July.
Airbus signed a provisional deal on Tuesday to boost the number
of A320 family jets assembled in Tianjin to six a month by 2020
from four at present.
Airbus declined to comment on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Michel Rose and Beijing Monitoring Desk;
additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; Editing by
Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates)
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