Airbus Group SE won an agreement from ANA Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest airline, to buy three of its A380 superjumbos, said a person familiar with the plan, giving the European planemaker a welcome vote of confidence for an aircraft that hadn’t won a new airline customer in three years.
The parent of All Nippon Airways Co. will take delivery of the planes from 2018, with plans to use them on its Tokyo to Hawaii route, a popular destination for Japanese tourists, another person said. The order will form just a piece of a larger strategic plan, to be unveiled at the end of this month, calling for fleet renewal. The people asked not to be identified because an announcement is planned for later this month.
