Airbus won an agreement from Japan's largest airline ANA Holdings to buy three of its A380 superjumbos, said a person familiar with the plan, giving the European planemaker a welcome vote of confidence for an aircraft that hadn't won a new airline customer in three years.

The parent of All Nippon Airways Co will take delivery of the planes from 2018, with plans to use them on its Tokyo to Hawaii route, a popular destination for Japanese tourists, another person said.

The order will form just a piece of a larger strategic plan, to be unveiled at the end of this month, calling for fleet renewal. The people asked not to be identified because an announcement is planned for later this month.

Airbus has suffered a dearth of orders for its largest plane, whose list price is $428 million and typically seats about 525 passengers, but can carry over 800 depending on the configuration, as many airlines have favoured somewhat smaller twin-aisle planes, including Airbus’s A350 and Boeing’s 777.

While the order is only for three planes, enough to serve one route, success on that route could lead to further orders, one person said.

Any order for Airbus in Japan is a special victory given that the market for decades has been heavily dominated by Boeing.

Since 2000 when it started marketing the A380, Airbus has said Tokyo would be a key airport for the plane. Airlines including Air France, Deutsche Lufthansa and Emirates have all flown their A380s into Tokyo. – Bloomberg