Indonesia’s Lion Air is performing another expansion. – but instead of turning to Boeing like it has done in the past, it is now turning to Airbus.
The order is a mix of both old and new designs within the A320 Family, with a total of 234 aircraft.
The splits are:
– 60 A320Ceo aircraft
– 109 A320Neo aircraft
– 65 A321Neo aircraft
The aircraft will be delivered from 2014 to 2016, with the order having a list price of US$24 billion.
Of course, who pats list prices for plane?
Lion Air chief Rusdi Kirana states:
“This landmark order will ensure that the Lion Air group will continue its expansion with one of the most modern and advanced fleets in the world.”
This will raise an eyebrow over Boeing, where Lion Air was a launch customer for the Boeing 737-900ER, as well as a customer for the upcoming Boeing 737-9 MAX.
For a switch to Airbus, it must had come at one hell of a discount price.
It’s also possible Lion Air wants to try a a different fleet out for a different set of services – but this could be achieved by using other members of the Boeing 737 family.
Still – more aircraft will hopefully more routes to more places.
234 aircraft over 3 years!
Assuming a Jan 1 2014 – Dec 31 2016, thats 6-7 aircraft per month. That is in addition to the 201 737Max, 5 787s, and 15 outstanding 737NG’s. That amount of growth is crazy. I don’t know how they plan on maintaining profits, managing the network, training the staff, etc. This seems like a recipe for disaster…