Paris Air ShowWith Boeing in mourning mode, Airbus dominates at Paris Air Show with 142 firm orders announced
The battle for commercial aircraft orders between Airbus and Boeing at the Paris Air Show was thwarted by the crash of Air India’s 787-8 Dreamliner, the aircraft’s first in 14 years of service.
The US manufacturer’s top brass cancelled their presence at Le Bourget and the CEO of its commercial division, Stephanie Pope, flew to India on Monday to meet with the airline’s chairman.
During the trade show, no deals were announced by Boeing, which only released a statement on an industrial cooperation with TAAG, an Angolan airline.
The discretion out of respect for the more than 270 victims of the fatal accident left the field open for Airbus to dominate the sales announcements.
And the European planemaker did not hold back, with 142 firm orders and another 102 aircraft under provisional agreements, in addition to 171 purchase options.
The list included the order for 40 jets (10 A350F and 30 A321neo) by Saudi lessor AviLease and also 40 A220 aircraft by LOT Polish Airlines (20 A220-100 and 20 A220-300).
All Nippon Airways (ANA) signed the purchase of 27 A321neo that had been announced in February, while Riyadh Air ordered 25 A350-1000 widebodies.
There was also a final order for 10 A350-1000s by Taiwan’s STARLUX, while EgyptAir expanded its A350-900 agreement from 10 to 16 aircraft. This order, however, had already been on the backlog since May and was not considered by Airbus.
AirAsia resisted pressure to sign an agreement
The most eye-catching number, however, was the plan to order 100 A320neo family jets announced by VietJet, but this is still a provisional agreement and therefore not counted.
The situation is the same as the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Airbus with MNG Airlines, from Turkey, which intends to order two A350Fs.
There was an expectation that Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia would place a massive order for A321XLR and A220 jets, but the airline’s owner, Tony Fernandes, told Reuters that there is no rush to close the deal, which also includes talks with Embraer.
The European manufacturer, however, is said to have made aggressive proposals to secure another large order for the A220, for around 100 planes, but AirAsia resisted the pressure, stating that it should reach a decision within three months.
Order from the largest customer for the E175
Without Boeing, Embraer was left to compete for space in the headlines at the Paris Air Show. The Brazilian company began with an announcement of the sale of a C-390 to Portugal, but which included the option to purchase another ten aircraft.
After absorbing the defeat in the competition from LOT, which will exchange its E-Jets for the A220, Embraer announced on Wednesday a large order for 60 E175s and 50 purchase options for the US regional airline SkyWest.
It is the largest customer for the 76-seat model in the world and a segment where it is alone after the end of production of the CRJ jets and the cancellation of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet.
There was also the selection of the C-390 as Lithuania’s new military transport aircraft, which is set to acquire three jets, and perhaps an important piece of news that has not received much attention, the leasing of 10 E195-E2s by Airlink, from South Africa.
The airline, which is the largest in the country, has a large fleet of Embraer jets and is expected to sign an agreement with Azorra soon. In other words, the lessor may expand its order for E2s to fill occupied slots in the future.
About the Author
Ricardo Meier
Creator of the website that started in 1996 as a magazine. He also writes on Brazilian websites AUTOO, MOTOO and MetrôCPTM.
