Fast-growing Qatar Airways intends to sign deals by September worth USD$15.6 billion for 80 Airbus and Boeing wide-body jets, its chief executive said on Thursday.

The state-controlled carrier announced in June at the Paris Air Show that it planned to buy a mix of 60 Airbus A350-800 and A350-900 planes and 20 Boeing 777-200LR and 777-300ER aircraft.

"We have committed and hopefully by September we will sign the official documents... and we will sign the purchase agreement in November," Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said in an interview.

Qatar's Airbus order represents a massive boost for the European planemaker and a vote of confidence in its future mid-sized A350, which Qatar Airways chose over US rival Boeing's new 787, due to enter service in 2008.

Airbus has said it hopes to win board approval next month to formally begin building the A350. A signed deal with Qatar will help convince the board there is sufficient market demand to justify the program.

Qatar, the youngest national carrier in the Gulf Arab region, is due to take delivery of the A350s between 2010 and 2015, while the Boeing planes should arrive between 2007 and 2010.

Al Baker said the airline was in the final stages of selecting an engine supplier for the planes and was looking favorably at General Electric.

The small Gulf Arab state's national carrier is one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world and aims to triple in size over five years as it capitalizes on a boom in development and tourism in the oil-rich region.

It has 66 destinations, which it says will increase to 70 by the end of 2005.

Al Baker said Qatar Air would remain loss-making for the foreseeable future as it spends heavily to add planes and destinations.

"Every route expansion requires additional investment that you will not see returns on for three or four years," he said. "But what is important is that our cost structure is in line with other major carriers, and that is the indicator that the airline is not overspending."

He said Qatar Air got help from the state in the form of guarantees for financing.

"But there is nothing wrong with that because this is a business that is state-owned," he said.

Qatar Air plans to retire or sell its nine older Airbus A300s as new aircraft are added to its fleet.

"We want to keep our fleet with an average age of six years old," Al Baker said.