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IAG, the airline’s parent company, announced the order a day after Britain and the United States confirmed the framework for a trade agreement to lower tariffs.
May 9, 2025, 9:27 a.m. ET
British Airways will get 32 new Boeing planes, in a deal worth nearly $13 billion, its parent company announced on Friday, a day after U.S. officials teased a big order was coming for America’s largest plane maker.
IAG, which owns British Airways and other European airlines, said it had ordered the Boeing aircraft as well as 21 planes from Airbus, a French aerospace company, to be delivered between 2028 and 2033. Most of the planes were replacements for aging aircraft, but about a third were to expand the group’s fleet as it took a bet on long-haul flights.
The announcement came after Howard Lutnick, the U.S. commerce secretary, said Thursday that Britain would buy $10 billion worth of Boeing planes as he announced details of what he called a “strong” trade deal between the two countries. The plane order, however, is a commercial agreement and not part of the governments’ trade deal.
Mr. Lutnick also said the United States would scrap tariffs on jet engines and other parts from Rolls-Royce, a British company, although the arrangement was not included in the documents published on Thursday by the U.S. and British governments.
On Thursday, the two nations agreed on a framework to lower U.S. tariffs on cars and steel for British imports, while Britain increased market access for American beef and ethanol. President Trump and Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, warmly congratulated each other on agreeing to the first trade deal since the U.S. administration substantially raised tariffs on its trading partners. But this agreement is not final: More negotiations will take place, and it is unclear when the tariff reductions will take effect.
The Boeing order, announced alongside IAG’s quarterly earnings report, was for 787-10 aircraft with a list price of $397 million (in dollar pricing from January) each, making the order for 32 planes worth $12.7 billion. But the company said it had a secured a discount on that price. IAG has the option to buy 10 more planes.
