Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Flydubai orders 737 MAX, in addition to A320neos, at Dubai Air Show
Nov. 19, 2025, © Leeham News: Yesterday flydubai ordered the 150 Airbus A320neo family at the Dubai Air Show. Today, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for 75 Boeing 737 MAXes and options for 75 more. Flydubai may switch its orders between the 737-8, -9 or -10. The airline already operates the 737 NG and 737 MAX.
Emirates Airline placed an order for eight more Airbus A350-900s, bringing its total order to 73. The list price is $3.4bn for the new deal, or an average of $422m per aircraft.
Buraq Air of Libya signed an MOU for 10 A320neo family aircraft. It becomes a new Airbus customer.
Silk Way West Airlines of Azerbaijan ordered two A350Fs freighter aircraft. The cargo airline now has a total order to four A350Fs.
From our partner, AIN
AerCap leases 737 MAX to FlySafair
AerCap is leasing three new Boeing 737 Max 8 airliners to African carrier FlySafair. The agreement was announced on Tuesday at the Dubai Airshow, with deliveries expected to start in the first quarter of 2028.
In the third quarter of 2026, South Africa-based FlySafair is due to receive a pair of Boeing 737-800NG aircraft from AerCap. The carrier launched its services in 2014 and operates domestic routes to 10 cities in South Africa, as well as five international routes to neighboring countries.
The full story may be read here.
Comac Makes Dubai Airshow Debut
The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is making its Middle East debut at the Dubai Airshow this week, as the Shanghai-based manufacturer seeks to foster “deeper cooperative relationships with global customers and partners.”
A China Southern Airlines C919 narrowbody airliner features alongside a Comac C909 business jet variant in the static lineup, and a second C919 is performing in the daily flying display.
The full story may be read here.
AIN’s full air show coverage may be read here.
from AW
Scherer Says Airbus Sees Interest ‘Everywhere’ In Stretched A350
“Airbus Commercial CEO Christian Scherer says the company could build a stretched version of the A350-1000 using a more powerful version of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engine and is seeing increasing customer demand for such an aircraft.
“Scherer did not say when Airbus might launch the aircraft. “We need to phase it in in terms of deployment of engineering resources. We have the [A350] ULR to finish, we have the freighter, the A220 stretch to do. But we can do it. We are not fundamentally resource constraint,” he says.”