Qatar Airways said earlier it had cancelled the first of five A320neo jets over delays in deliveries caused by engine problems and threatened to walk away from four more.
Fabrice Bregier, president and CEO of the Airbus Group planemaking unit, said low fuel prices and faster growth among airlines was boosting demand for the earlier version of its A320 series, whose production would now last until at least 2019 rather than the originally planned cut-off in late 2017.