German airline Lufthansa has decided to go ahead with an order for 15 superjumbos from Airbus, a decision it postponed in the immediate aftermath of 11 September.

Lufthansa's decision to buy the huge A380 passenger planes comes amid a global downturn in passenger numbers caused by the 11 September suicide hijackings.

The Airbus A380 superjumbos will each be able to seat 550 people, making them the biggest passenger planes ever.

For Airbus, the Lufthansa order is an important contribution to meeting its target of 100 orders needed if the superjumbo is to be commercially viable.

Boost for Wales

Wings for the giant A380 will be be built at the Airbus plant at Broughton in North Wales.

Lufthansa did not say how much the deal to buy 15 aircraft is worth.

But it said it needs the planes to fend off competition.

"With this decision, we are signaling a future-oriented investment, which will help strengthen Lufthansa's position long term in international competition," said chief executive Juergen Weber.

But Lufthansa's shares plunged about 4% as the Frankfurt Stock Exchange opened as investors focused on the firm's financing plans rather than the upbeat signal given by the order.

Lufthansa has also announced it is to raise 500 m euros by issuing a 10-year bond convertible into shares on maturity.

"It is outweighing news of the order, which is positive because it is indirectly a comment on their outlook," one stock trader said.

Lufthansa has cut capacity by 20% since 11 September, mothballing planes and dropping less-profitable routes.

Doubts on strategy

To tackle the industry downturn, the Airbus consortium is planning to shave 400m euros from general costs and 200m euros on investment projects.

The consortium orginally conceived the superjumbo as an �8bn saviour for the European airline industry.

But even before 11 September airline analysts had questioned whether it was a sound long term strategy to build such a big plane, the first of which is due to fly in 2006.

Lufthansa's shares later recovered, gaining almost one euro to 15.85 euro by 11.11 GMT.

Shares in Paris-listed EADS, which owns 80% of Airbus, rocketed up nearly 8%.