Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways plans to order between 50 and 100 jetliners this summer, an executive said on Wednesday.

The purchases could include a repeat order for the Airbus A380 superjumbo, the world's largest passenger jet, four of which are already due to join the Etihad fleet in 2013.

The airline, owned by the Abu Dhabi government, is seeking to expand its network in the Middle East and to nations including India to compete with regional giants Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airways.

Francis Ebner, director general for Etihad's operations in France, told a media briefing on the Gulf airline industry that the airline would order planes in all three main categories.

These are the very large A380, which seats 525 people, or the slightly smaller Boeing 747-8; the mid-sized Boeing 787 Dreamliner or the Airbus A350; and the single-aisle Airbus A320 or Boeing 737.

Aviation demand is predicted to dip in 2008 after a record 2007 but the Mideast Gulf has been a surprisingly steady source of demand for passenger jets alongside Asian low-cost carriers.

'We will order 50 planes this summer for delivery in 2013,' Ebner said, adding afterwards that the total order could rise to 100 aircraft including all three categories.

Etihad said last year it was evaluating the A350 against the Boeing 787. An order of 50 planes in this category would be worth around $10 billion.

Etihad, the youngest of the major Gulf airlines, operates 5 wide-body Boeing 777-300ERs and 28 Airbus aircraft including wide-body A330s and A340s.

It already plans to boost its fleet to 50 planes serving 60 destinations by 2010, Ebner said.

Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, the A380 plane's largest customer, said deliveries are running on schedule after two years of production delays.

'The deliveries are due to be on time and in some cases even a few weeks early,' Jean-Luc Grillet, head of Emirates operations in France and Benelux, told the same media event.

The ability of European planemaker Airbus to stick to its revised schedule of 13 A380 deliveries in total this year is seen as one of the factors driving the stock price of parent EADS.

Airbus has said delivering the plane on time is one of its top priorities for 2008. Emirates will receive two A380s in August, another two later in 2008 and one at the beginning of next year, Grillet said.

The A380 went into service with Singapore Airlines in October 2007. - Reuters