Airbus Farnborough Business Reaches 431 Aircraft

Airbus said it won new business for 431 aircraft at the Farnborough Airshow, and finished off its week with an additional order from AirAsia X for 34 A330neos.

The new business broke down into 93 firm orders and 338 MoUs, comprising 60 A220-300s, 304 A320-family aircraft, 42 A330neos and 25 A350s. That takes Airbus's total to 752 orders and commitments for the year so far.

Airbus chief commercial officer Eric Schulz said of the total: “Our year to date and our end of show commitments confirm the strong market appetite for all our leading aircraft product families, from our newest member, the 100-150 seater A220, complemented by our A320 family up to 240 seats, seamlessly connected to our widebody family with the all-new A330neo and A350 XWB which span from 250-370 seats.”

New commitments announced on Thursday started with a Memorandum of Understanding from Vietjet for the purchase of an additional 50 A321neos at a list price value of USD$6.48 billion.

Airbus said the MoU takes the airline’s backlog of A321 orders to 129 - 123 A321neos and 6 A321ceos.

An undisclosed customer also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for A320neos, this time for a more modest 10, worth just under USD$1.3 billion at list prices.

But Airbus’s biggest announcement of Day Four was for a firm order from Malaysia’s AirAsia X for an additional 34 A330neos. The USD$10 billion order at list prices takes the low cost long haul airline’s total A330neo orders to 100. All 100 are for the larger A330-900 model.

AirAsia X group chief executive Kamarudin Meranun said “We lobbied hard for the A330neo after seeing the success of the A320neo, and working closely with Airbus, we have arrived at an aircraft that we are confident will allow us to expand our low fares offering beyond Asia Pacific to the rest of the world.”

AirAsia co-founder Tony Fernandes added that “Our decision not only to reconfirm our existing order for 66 A330neo, but to add 34 more, follows what is probably one of the most thorough aircraft evaluations the industry has ever seen. We have looked at every aspect of the A330neo from technical performance and reliability to passenger comfort and it is clearly the right aircraft for us to expand efficiently our fast-growing long haul network.”

Also at Farnborough, Portuguese aircraft wet lease company Hi Fly were showing off their first Airbus A380, fresh from the paint shop. The airline is the first operator of a second-hand A380.

Hi Fly chief executive Paulo Mirpuri welcomed the arrival of the A380 into its fleet, saying “We are extremely happy with the market reaction so far on this new availability in our wet lease product offering.” He also praised the aircraft’s comfort and environmental performance.

The Hi Fly A380, one of five that Singapore Airlines handed back to lessors at the end of their 10-year lease, will be on display until Sunday.