Qantas confirms orders for 8 more Airbus A380s

Qantas Airways Ltd., Australia’s largest airline, placed a $2.4-billion order for Airbus A380 airliners, a day after the world’s biggest plane maker won an expanded order for the model from Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Qantas, which already had 12 A380s on order, confirmed an earlier commitment for eight more of the super-jumbo jets, Chairwoman Margaret Jackson said at a Sydney, Australia, news conference.

The firm A380 orders are the first for the 555-seat airliner in a year. Toulouse, France-based Airbus suffered a cancellation of an order for 10 freighters from FedEx Corp. in November because of delays in the aircraft’s production and delivery.