HispanicBusiness

Aerospace manufacturer Boeing booked more new contracts Wednesday for its 787 airliner, even with the so-called Dreamliner grounded for nearly three months over battery fire dangers.

IAG, parent company of British Airways, announced it had inked an agreement to buy another 18 of the new planes, which promise greater fuel efficiency than competing long-distance aircraft. The list price would be about 4 billion dollars, but aircraft buyers routinely negotiate significant discounts.

The company already ordered 24 Dreamliners in 2007 for British Airways. Additional 787s for IAG's Spanish subsidiary, Iberia, are expected to be ordered in the future.

The global fleet of about 50 Dreamliners delivered so far, mostly to Asian carriers, has been grounded since January, as Boeing engineers try to resolved problems that caused batteries, which are key to the plane's promised fuel savings, to catch fire or melt down. Proposed fixes are now being tested.