SYRIAN Arab Airlines, the country's state-run carrier, plans to buy 50 planes from Airbus SAS to modernize its fleet, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Initial negotiations with France's government, also involving a reorganization of the airline, were held three weeks ago, and a transaction may be completed when French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Syria in September, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdallah Dardari said in an interview in Damascus. The airline would buy single-aisle Airbus A320s as well as twin-aisle A330, A340 and A350 models.

"We are now in agreement with the French to completely restructure the national airline, now that we have an agreement to buy Airbus planes," Dardari said in the interview on Tuesday. He declined to specify an order value or a breakdown by model.

Airlines from Middle Eastern and Asian countries, where economic expansion is beating growth in more developed markets, accounted for most of the US$64 billion in orders that Airbus and Boeing Co won at the Farnborough International Air Show near London in mid-July. Syria's economy expanded by more than 6 percent last year, and President Bashar Al-Assad forecast in June that growth this year will reach 6.6 percent.

The carrier, known as Syrian Air, was set up in 1946. Its 18-plane fleet includes A320s and single-aisle Boeing 727s. The airline would lease four planes in the next 18 months and then take delivery of the first 14 Airbus airliners from 2010 to 2018 and a further 36 by 2028, Dardari said.

"We are in discussions," Habib Fekih, Airbus' president for the Middle East, said on Tuesday. "We didn't finish the review yet and are working on the final details and their requirements over the coming years."

A320-series planes, which offer 107-185 seats, are priced at US$56 million to US$86 million apiece. The four-engine, 380-seat A340 costs US$239 million while the planned A350, similar in size to the A330 with 250 to 350 seats, will cost up to US$259 million. Catalog prices don't include discounts that Airbus offers for larger orders.