Chinese carrier China Southern Airlines said today it has signed an agreement with the European aircraft manufacturer to purchase 96 airplanes of the A-320neo type. Management said the order is worth 12.25 billion dollars, based on list prices.

This was reported by the British news agency "Reuters", citing sources in the Asian airline. Pending a press note officially confirming the sale, the news testifies to a major leap forward for the European aircraft manufacturer over rival Boeing in the Chinese market. 

It is also a snub for the new C-919 aircraft developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac), which is ready to go to market, but according to some analysts, would be priced very close to that of its much more established rivals in the same category: the European A-320neo aircraft (about 111 million dollars at list prices) and the B-737 MAX (about 117 million dollars). 

On the same topic see also the article published by AVIONEWS.