Suck It, Airbus!

Air India has put in a $6.9 billion dollar order... With Boeing.

BOMBAY — Air India approved on Tuesday the purchase of up to 50 long-range Boeing (BA) aircraft at a cost of about 300 billion rupees ($6.9 billion), the U.S. plane maker's second multi-billion-dollar deal in as many days.

The order, subject to Indian government approval, includes eight 777-200LR ultra-long-range aircraft, 15 777-300ER aircraft and 27 787 long-range aircraft, India's state-run international carrier said in a statement.

Shares in European aerospace group EADS, which owns 80 percent of Boeing's arch rival Airbus, were down 1 percent in Paris on Tuesday, while shares in Britain's BAE Systems Plc, which owns 20 percent, were down 1.8 percent.

Boeing Co. had said it hoped to corner a big share of the estimated $35 billion market in India over the next 20 years.

I could say a lot of things about this, but I'll limit myself to saying that it's just pretty darn excellent.