Airbus turned up the heat on emerging competitors for its most popular aircraft by pledging to upgrade the A320 jetliner with state-of-the-art engines offering 15 percent fuel savings from 2016. The world's largest planemaker said it would invest just over 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in the "A320neo" project to improve efficiency and cut harmful emissions and noise.
The new planes, with upward-slanting wingtips, will look almost identical to existing aircraft but have larger and more efficient engines from either US group Pratt & Whitney or CFM International, a joint venture between US conglomerate General Electric and French group Safran. Shares in Airbus parent EADS rose 1.3 percent to 17.49 euros by 1519 GMT.