Farnborough: First day order recap

By Alex Derber

July 16, 2018, (c) Airfinance Journal: Day One of Farnborough 2018 belonged firmly to Boeing in terms of firm orders, although the US manufacturer saved up many of its largest announcements from deals done earlier in the year. Airbus, meanwhile, almost achieved parity if one includes softer commitments from airlines and lessors, although there were some speculative deals, notably a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 17 A350s from Starlux, a Taiwanese start-up not yet in business.

Other noteworthy deals included lessor Jackson Square Aviation’s first new aircraft order and United decision to buy E175s rather than the newer E2 variant.

Aircraft announcements:
Jet Airways was confirmed as the airline behind an order for 75 737 Max 8s previously unidentified by Boeing. It is an additional Max order for the Indian airline, which received its first Max in June 2018.

Click on image to enlarge into crisp view. Source: Airfinance Journal.

Salamair signed an agreement to add six Airbus A320neo aircraft to its fleet, of which it will lease five from an undisclosed lessor. The Omani low-cost carrier currently operates three A320s.

Gol converted 30 Boeing 737 Max orders to the largest Max 10 variant and ordered 15 additional Max 8s. The Brazilian carrier now has 135 orders for Max-family aircraft, the first of which it received in June 2018. Deliveries will continue through 2028.

United Airlines ordered 25 Embraer E175 regional jets that will be delivered from the second quarter of 2019. Almost 400 Embraer aircraft already operate in the United Express regional network.

Goshawk Aviation ordered 20 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. It is the Dublin-based lessor’s first direct order from Boeing.

Macquarie AirFinance ordered 20 Airbus A320neo aircraft. It is the first A320neo order from the lessor, which has an existing Airbus portfolio of 110 A320-family aircraft and nine A330s.

An undisclosed lessor signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for 80 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft. Engine selection is still to be made.

Goshawk Aviation ordered 20 Airbus A320neos. The Dublin-based lessor has not chosen an engine yet.

Urumqi Airlines agreed a letter of intent for 20 Comac ARJ21-700 aircraft. If firmed up, this would make the Chinese carrier a new customer for the aircraft.

Tarom ordered five Boeing 737 Max 8s.

Wataniya Airways firmed up an order for 25 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft following an MoU at the 2017 Dubai air show. Golden Falcon Aviation, the exclusive aircraft provider of Wataniya, is the purchaser.

United Airlines ordered an extra four Boeing 787-9s. It has now placed orders for 55 787-8, 787-9 and 787-10 aircraft, with the latest four set to be delivered in 2020.

Vistara signed a letter of intent (LoI) for 13 Airbus A320neos and committed to rent an additional 37 from lessors.

Qatar Airways ordered five Boeing 777 freighters to add to the 13 it already operates. The deal was announced as a commitment in April.

Jackson Square Aviation became the 100th Boeing 737 Max customer with an order for 30 Max-family aircraft. It is the lessor’s first direct purchase from a manufacturer.

DHL placed an order and commitment for 14 Boeing 777 freighters and took purchase rights for seven additional freighters. A portion of the order was previously unidentified on Boeing’s website.

Starlux Airlines signed an MoU for 12 Airbus A350-1000s and five A350-900s to support the Taiwanese carrier’s launch of long-haul services in 2022. Separately, Starlux has said it will receive the first of 10 leased A320neos from October 2019.

Sichuan Airlines ordered 10 Airbus A350s, finalising a deal announced earlier this year. The Chinese carrier will also lease four A350s.

European turboprop manufacturer ATR announced a batch of orders and commitments from five customers ahead of the air show. On 13 July it released details of nine orders:

Air Botswana signed a firm order for two ATR72-600s.
Druk Air ordered one ATR42-600 unit.
Aurigny Airlines inked an LoI for the purchase of three ATR72-600s
Air Saint-Pierre signed an MoU for a new ATR42-600.
EWA Air signed an MoU for two ATR72-600s.

Engines announcements:
Middle East Airlines selected Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines to power 11 A320neo-family aircraft on firm order.

Vistara Airlines signed an LoI to buy 26 CFM LEAP-1A engines to power 13 additional Airbus A320neo aircraft.

Yunnan Hongtu Airlines will buy CFM56-5B engines to power three Airbus A320 aircraft.

Sichuan Airlines selected the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine for an order for 10 Airbus A350 aircraft. The Trent XWB is the only engine choice for the aircraft.

Starlux Airlines will order Trent XWB engines if it confirms an order for 12 A350-1000s and five A350-900s.

 

 

19 Comments on “Farnborough: First day order recap

  1. Was expecting Starlux to order A350 as Mr. Chang flew the plan with Airbus crew from GMP to TPE during A35K world tour. Later he expressed A35K is the front runner for his choice. Also heard that Boeing isn’t really interested in selling planes to him even they had pretty good relationship while he was chairman of EVA air.

    • Has anyone yet seen a business plan from this outfit? Doesn’t Taiwan already have a ferocious amount of airline competition, both internally and from Japan? At 48% of list ($311MM “list” per plane), you’re talking over $2.5 Billion in capital investment before systems, gates, admin, working capital, etc. Got one word for it: mind-boggling! LOL

      • An airline is a very capital-intensive business. Of course, they might be planning to do a leaseback deal to reduce the capital requirements.

        • These are the founders of Evergreen, if Bill Gates wanted to buy a couple of dozen aircraft and start an airline, wouldn’t you sell them to him? Probably safer than selling to UA, not so easy to escape your bills via ch11 in other countries.

          • Looked quickly at EVA’s wiki page. It’s an impressive 5 star Skytrax airline. Good luck, Chang, with your attempted “giant killing”! You’re gonna need it! LOL

          • Shades of Vietnams Bamboo airline that has a new op plan every 6 months.

            787s and A320s bandied about.

    • Ah, re-read the intro paragraph and it’s indeed the E1 variant. Not many airlines yet for the E2 versions (and only SkyWest for the E2-175), but maybe the Boeing sales team will turn that around once the deal closes at the end of next year.

      • The E2 is too heavy for the US3 scope clause. Same issue with the MRJ70.

        • Right … was that just optimistic planning by Embraer and Mitsubishi, hoping that the scope clauses would be relaxed?

          • phoenix:

            The E2-195 is too heavy

            The E2-175 and 190 are not.

            The buy is in line with what the C is and can do vs the E.

            E is regional and in scope. C is Trans Con and out of scope.

            Ergo, it all depends on what you want to do with it.

            Jet Blue is clearly replacing A320s with it.

            Neelman looks to be doing the same for a Trans Con capable operation.

  2. Glad to see AIR BOTSWANA still competing.

    Remember when a terminated AB pilot crashed one of AB’s three ATRs into the remaining two on the ramp? AHH…”Fleet Renewal”…perhaps courtesy of Lloyds of London?

    Bloody bad year, that!

  3. Airbus looks like they going to win this one. Glad Brexit has not effect on this one.

  4. Lots of E2 orders announced today.

    Azul amongst them, who is partnering up with Neelman who is going to fly Trans Atlantic with the Cs.

    So back to, do you want (need) Trans Con/Trans Atl or are you all regional.

    • Yesterday 3hr ETOPS for 220-300 was announced. Today there is talk by Neelman of transatlantic flights.

      I guess the idea is that someone from a smaller EastCoast market can fly direct to say London Stansted. Much more convenient for the passenger save time and the airline gets the revenue that would have been lost to the regional connection.

      If US pre-clearance in the UK were to go ahead this would work from any US airport. If not it needs to be an international one.

      I wonder if JetBlue has the same thing in mind.

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