Paris (dpa) – European aircraft manufacturer Airbus was tightlipped Saturday about reports that it has clinched a deal with Hong Kong Airlines for 10 Airbus A380 super jumbos, worth up to 3.8 billion dollars. Britain's Financial Times reported the deal, citing officials at Hong Kong Airlines. The newspaper said Airbus would begin deliveries in 2015. Airbus refused to confirm the deal. Spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said the airline would reveal new orders at a joint New Year's press conference by France-based Airbus and its Munich-based parent company EADS on January 17. Schaffrath confirmed the catalogue value of such a deal would be about 3.8 billion dollars, based on a unit price of 375 million dollars. Airlines usually negotiate significant discounts, meaning the real value of the order is likely to be a good deal less. The Financial Times reported that the order had gone through despite China threatening to derail the deal over its objections to a European Union scheme requiring airlines to offset their carbon footprint. Starting this month airlines flying in and out of the EU have to offset some of the carbon that their planes emit by buying “allowances” from greener industries. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/aLis3 Tags: Airbus, Hong Kong, Planes Section: Business, East Asia