British Airways Orders 8 Jets From Boeing

British Airways on Friday exercised options to buy five Boeing Co. 777s and placed orders for three 767 jetliners in a contract valued at $1 billion, another victory for the U.S. plane maker from one of its most reliable customers.

The world’s largest long-haul airline has never ordered a plane from Boeing’s rival, the European plane-making group Airbus Industrie.

The 777 and 767, used mainly on long-distance routes, compete with the Airbus A330 and A340 family of wide-body jets.

British Airways has been one of the most aggressive airlines in cutting costs in recent years and flies only a few different aircraft types to save training and maintenance expenses.

“An airline as cost-conscious as BA wouldn’t make a major investment in another type when its fleet is already well-set,” said Chris Avery, an analyst with Paribas Capital Markets. “In a sense, the only entry Airbus can make into its fleet is with a new type--the A3XX.”

Avery was referring to the European group’s plan to break Boeing’s monopoly on planes seating more than 400 people with the 600-seat A3XX, which it hopes to introduce early next century. BA has chided Boeing for dropping plans to build a plane larger than the 420-seat 747, which BA uses on crowded routes to congested airports like those in London and Hong Kong.

Boeing stock rose 37.5 cents to close at $56.875 on the New York Stock Exchange, and American depositary receipts of British Airways were unchanged at $114.875.

The airline said it will use most of the 777s on transcontinental routes from London’s Gatwick Airport. British Airways exercised options from a 1991 order, when it bought 15 of the 305-seat planes and took options for 15 more.

Seattle-based Boeing announced the order at the Paris Air Show, where the world’s largest maker of commercial aircraft has kept a lower profile than usual to avoid further criticism from the European Union about its plans to buy rival McDonnell Douglas Corp. for about $16 billion in stock.

Including Friday’s order, Boeing has announced about $1.45 billion of orders at the show, down from $7.5 billion at the Farnborough air show last September in England. Airbus has so far won $3.5 billion of orders.