Paris Air Show 2017 – Day 1 Digest – Attack of the Narrow-bodies

Welcome to the return of the air show digest – and we’re back at Le Bourget (well, I’m not – I’m sat in Birmingham cooking in an office).

So here’s day one of the Paris Digest.

The big news of the day was the launch by Boeing of the Boeing 737 10 MAX.

Boeing 737 MAX 10 – Image The Boeing Company

I’ll be takign a closer look at the Boeing 737 MAX 10 later – but it’s another stretch of the Boeing 737 MAX, with this being the fourth member of the MAX family of 737 aircraft.

Boeing has been racking up orders, memorandum of understanding, letters of intent for the type, including, racking up 240 orders and commitments from over 10 customers. Here’s a few below.

• BOC Aviation – 10 Aircraft (MoU)
• GECAS 20 Aircraft (converting part of its 737 MAX Order)
• TUI Group – 18 Aircraft (converting part of its 737 MAX Order)
• Tibet Financial Leasing – 20 aircraft to be made up 737 MAX 10 and 737 MAX 8 (MOU)
• SpiceJet – 40 aircraft, made up of 20 new 737 MAX 10s, and 20 converted from existing orders
• LionAir – 50 aircraft.

In the Boeing 737 MAX 8, there’s a few more orders seeping through:

• Kuwait-based ALAFCO Aviation Lease and Finance Company announced a commitment for 20 737 MAX 8s
• Norwegian add an extra Boeing 737 MAX 8s
• Monarch firm up 15 options for 737 MAX 8

Finally, in the widebody camp

• AerCap is to take an extra 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners – making it the biggest owners of Boeing 787 Dreamliners. These are leased out to airlines.
• Boeing and UPS have tied up to announce the launch of the 767-300BCF (Boeing Converted Freighter). Three aircraft have been earmarked initially for conversion.

Let’s head over to Airbus with their news. It’s been quiet on the order front, with two orders announced today

•  GECAS will be adding 100 Airbus A320neo family aircraft in a firm order
• A follow-on order from Air Lease Corp for another 12 A321neo aircraft.

The big news from Airbus however was not the outside of the plane – rather the inside, with the launch of Airspace by Airbus interior for Narrow Body aircraft.

Airspace by Airbus A320neo interior – Image, Airbus. 

Airspace by Airbus Cabin – Image, Airbus.

This will need a further discussion – and I’ll take a deeper look at this tomorrow. Airspace by Airbus for the A320 family will start appearing in planes from 2020.

Over at Bombardier, there’s an early order for seven more Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft for Philippines Airlines – filling in the options that Philippines Airlines signed for some time ago.

Meanwhile ATR has been attracting a lot of Letters of Intent from Xuzhou Hantong of China for 3 ATR72-600 aircraft, and  Tianju Investment Group who are interested in 10 ATR 42-600s.

That’s it on day one – a day where the market for narrowbody aircraft hotted up with the launch of a new Boeing 737 MAX.

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can also follow me on Instagram too!

Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to European readers.