The Farnborough Digest: Day 2

Welcome to day two of the Farnborough Digest, as I continue to take a look at what orders have been stacking up today at the Farnborough International Airshow, and what aircraft you’ll be flying aboard in the future.

Kicking off the day is the impact the Airbus A330neo is making, with Air Asia X taking signing a Memorandum of Understanding for FIFTY A330-900neo aircraft.

A330-900neo in Air Asia colours – Rendering Airbus.

Air Asia currently operates A330s in their fleet, with a dense 3-3-3 seating configuration down the back of the plane (most Airbus A330s are configured in a 2-4-2 configuration in economy class). Subject to approval, deliveries will commence in 2018 – making Air Asia X the first airline to directly order the A330neo.

Avolon Leasing is adding to the A330neo order book, with an MoU of 15 A330neo aircraft, whilst CIT Aviation will take 15 A33neos with 5 Airbus A320ceo aircraft.

In the narrow body orders, the leasing companies are ordering more aircraft, with BOC Aviation ordering 43 A320 Family aircraft, comprising seven A320neo Family aircraft and 36 A320ceo aircraft across A320 and A321 models.

The bigger order came from SMBC Aviation Capital, who ordered 115 A320 aircraft, made up of 110 A320neo and five A320ceo aircraft.

Lessors  continue to control the market over at Boeing too with Air Lease ordering six Boeing 777-300ERs and reconfirming orders for 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Intrepid Aviation will also ordering six 777-300ERs with options for four more.

CIT Aerospace has placed an order for 10 787-9 Dreamliners, boosting its total 787 orders to 20, including 16 787-9s and four 787-8s.

Heading to the smaller jets and smaller planes with Embraer picking up some small orders from Fuji Dream Airlines (three E-175s), and two E-190s from Azerbaijan Airlines.

However, the bigger order for aircraft for Embraer is from Azul (who are a major user of the E-Jets currently) with a letter of intent for 30 E-195 E2s, and options for an extra 20 aircraft.

These aircraft are expected to be configured with 132 seats internally (14 more seats than the current E-195s used) and will be powered use Pratt & Whitney engines.

Over at Bombardier, there has been a trickle of orders, with Horizon Air picking up one Dash-8 Q400 aircraft, and five of the same type of aircraft for Falcon Aviation Services.

The interesting news release from Bombardier was the airframer is preparing to release a Dash8-Q400 Combi. Combi aircraft can handle cargo both in its hold and on the main deck of the aircraft.

The plan currently calls for seating up to 50 passengers, combined with 1,150 cubic feet of cargo volume, with a capacity of 8,200 lbs.

No airline has yet been identified to buy these aircraft yet – although this does increase the flexibility of the popular aircraft with just under 500 of the Q400 NextGen Turboprop in the skies or being built, used to various different types of flight – from big terminals to small city airports (such as Toronto City Airport and London City Airport).

And that’s it for the Farnborough Day Two Digest. I’ll be back late tomorrow with news from Day Three…