Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 27. June 20, 2025
- Pontifications: A Personal Note June 19, 2025
- Airbus books 142 firm orders as Boeing retracts from the Paris Air Show June 19, 2025
- AIN Media Group Agrees to Acquire Leeham News & Analysis June 17, 2025
- Five for Five: Air India crash points to systemic problems at Boeing that CEO Ortberg must fix June 15, 2025
IAG (British Air) gives huge boost to MAX
June 18, 2019, © Leeham News: In a major vote of confidence for the embattled 
Boeing 737 MAX, International Airline Group (IAG), parent of British Airways, Vueling, Iberia, LEVEL and Aer Lingus, signed a letter of intent late today for 200 737-8/10s.
This is a huge shot in the arm Boeing, which until the Paris Air Show, hadn’t booked an order in two months following the March 13 grounding of the MAX.
Airbus CEO says the airline industry must cut carbon emission with 50% by 2050
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 18, 2019, ©. Leeham News: Airbus new management team has set the company ambitious targets for the future. These not only describe how to develop and produce new, more competitive airliners but also defines Airbus’ contribution to a sustainable aviation industry, contributing its part in the fight against climate change.
The new Airbus CEO, Guillaume Faury said at the opening of the Paris Air show “We must find a way to decarbonized aviation. This is for our generation to do. It’s expected of us by the flying public and by society”.
Airbus launches long-expected A321XLR with ALC order; lessor also orders A220-300
By Judson Rollins
June 17, 2019, © Leeham News, Paris: Airbus launched its much-awaited A321XLR today with an initial order of 27 airplanes from lessor Air Lease Corp. ALC also ordered another 23 A321neos, which can optionally be taken as A321LRs. This brings ALC’s total Airbus order count to 387, making it Airbus’s third largest lessor.
Airbus also announced that ALC has ordered 50 A220-300s to be delivered between 2021 and 2026. ALC is the largest lessor to date to order the former C-Series aircraft. ALC executive chairman Steven Udvar-Hazy said, “We believe this aircraft will be a wonderful replacement for aging A319s, 737s, Fokker 100, BAe-146s, and other smaller jet aircraft.”
The order is structured as a letter of intent. ALC chief executive John Plueger said the LoI covers “all commercial business points” but that it will be converted to a firm order once certain terms are firmed on the A220 portion of the order.
Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer declined to discuss catalog pricing for the A321XLR.
Paris Air Show, Day One: Mitsubishi makes case for “SpaceJet” market opportunity
By Judson Rollins
June 17, 2019, © Leeham News, Paris: Senior executives from Mitsubishi Aircraft Company (MITAC) and parent Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) described the long journey to the revamped “SpaceJet” M90 and M100 aircraft. They also commented on what market role the SpaceJet could potentially fulfil, as well as potential incremental improvements to the aircraft.
MHI chairman Shunichi Miyanaga said that market conditions and competitive landscape have changed in the company’s favor as the need for regional jet replacement has grown and competition has dwindled down to just a single player, Embraer.
Paris Air Show Orders, Day 1
June 17, 2019, (c) Leeham News: Here are the orders and commitments for Day 1 of the Paris Air Show, courtesy of Airfinance Journal.
Returning MAX safely to service is Boeing’s “top priority”
June 17, 2019, © Leeham News: Boeing executives focused on its top priority, returning the grounded 737 MAX, safely to service, in its lead off briefing today at the Paris Air Show.
Greg Smith, EVP of The Boeing Co., appeared instead of CEO Dennis Muilenburg, taking the lead in recapping much of what has been known for weeks: Boeing’s regret for the 346 fatalities in the Lion Air and Ethiopian accidents, the MCAS software upgrade and working with airlines and regulators to determine the path back to recertifying the MCAS and the best curriculum for pilot training.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Kevin McAllister, Defense unit CEO Leanne Caret and Global Services unit CEO Stan Deal followed Smith in a tightly scripted set of presentations and answers to questions.
The four immediately left the stage after the Q&A instead of loitering for the usual press gaggles.
Looking at MAX beyond the grounding
June 17, 2019, © Leeham News, Paris: As the international aerospace community and media gathers here this week for the Paris Air Show, the Boeing 737 MAX is the elephant in the room.
The focus obviously is on when the MAX will return to service worldwide.
A few people are already looking beyond this, to how quickly Boeing will ramp production back up and how quickly the backlog of completed airplanes will be delivered to airlines and lessors.
The grounding appears that it will go on much longer than expected.
Pontifications: The elephant in the room
By Scott Hamilton
June 17, 2019, © Leeham News: The Paris Air Show opens today and the elephant in the room is the Boeing 737 MAX.
There is no telling when the airplane will get FAA approval to return to service. According to some news reports, Boeing will hasn’t turned over the MCAS revisions to the FAA for review, testing and approval.
The acting administrator of the FAA said he expects the MAX to be back in the air by the end of the year. Some leapt to the conclusion this means December—and it may, but let’s remember September, October and November are before the “end of the year,” too.
There’s no telling how other global regulators will act, and when, to conduct their own review and approvals. Airlines would like a global action. It’s tough to tell customers one country sees the airplane as safe but others don’t.
- Leeham News will be at the Paris Air Show this week, with coverage by Scott Hamilton, Bjorn Fehrm and Judson Rollins. All coverage will be open to all readers.
Bjorn’s Corner: Why hybrid cars work and hybrid airliners have challenges
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 14, 2019, ©. Leeham News: In last week’s Corner we discussed why aircraft with batteries as an energy source will be short ranged for decades to come. The battery energy density is too low and it won’t change appreciably over time.
Now we look at the challenges hybrid transport aircraft face when competing with today’s turbofan airliners.
The Zunum Hybrid electric airliner. Source; Zunum.
How Mitsubishi Aircraft morphed the MRJ70 into the M100 SpaceJet
By Bjorn Fehrm
June 13, 2019, © Leeham News.: Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp (MITAC) has done more than a rebranding and new livery in creating the SpaceJet out of the MRJ70.
It’s changing the design, its materials and several parts of the interior to accommodate more passengers than the MRJ70.
- Related story: How the SpaceJet came to be.
Here is a technical analysis of the aircraft, based on information released today and our own Aircraft Performance Model.
We describe the changes MITAC made to the MRJ70 to end up with the M100 SpaceJet and what these mean for passengers and operators.
Figure 1. The Mitsubishi M100 SpaceJet replacing the MRJ70. Source: Mitsubishi.