SANTIAGO, Chile -- The LATAM Airlines Group announced Thursday it has ordered 22 Airbus A-350 aircraft in a deal worth as much as $7 billion.
The agreement includes five additional Airbus (IW 1000/52) jetliners of the same model that had been on order since 2005.
"The investment -- the list price -- for the LATAM Group's total orders (27) is approximately $7 billion," the company said in a statement.
LATAM is the product of a merger in 2012 of Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM carriers. They fly to 135 destinations in 22 countries.
Despite the merger, the two airlines continue to operate as separate brands.
The aircraft will be delivered between the end of 2015 and 2019, with TAM in line to be the first carrier in the Americas to operate the A-350.
The company said the new aircrafts' fuel and other operating costs, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, are 25% less than that of other similar-sized planes.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
