EADS unit Airbus wins $11.5bn A380 order from Emirates

Shares in EADS have surged after Dubai airline Emirates placed a huge order for A380 super-jumbo jets.

The deal for 32 double-decker A380s brings the number ordered by Emirates to 90 and signals the airline's intention to continue its rapid growth.

The A380s, made by EADS's Airbus unit, have a list price of $11.5bn (£8bn), although Emirates probably secured big discounts on such a large order.

EADS's shares were trading up more than 5% at 17.09 euros, a 52-week high.

The order, announced at the Berlin Air Show, is especially good news for Airbus, which has faced a series of operational and financial difficulties.

And the news came in the week that global airlines upgraded their profit forecasts after the worst recession for decades, according to figures from the International Air Transport Authority.

The small emirate of Dubai has aspirations to be the world's aviation hub for air traffic moving across the globe.

The state-owned airline's growth rate was summed by Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chief executive of rival Lufthansa, when he told a meeting in Berlin: "It is already to many of us a miracle that Emirates now already has more seats on intercontinental routes than Air France and British Airways together, with a relatively small home market."

Emirates airline carried 27.5 million passengers last year, an increase of 4.7%. The airline is already using 10 of the A380s, which typically carry about 525 passengers.

"Our latest commitment signals Emirates' confidence in the growth to come in a thriving aviation sector," said Emirates' chief executive, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum.