Paris Air Show Day 1 Wrapup - Economy Class & Beyond

Day 1 of the Paris Air Show has been and gone – with a fair number of orders and commitments being made today.

Let’s have a quick look at some more significant stories that have come out today:

Garuda Indonesia kicked off the show with a letter of intent for 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, as well as up to Boeing 30 737 MAX 8, as well as reconfirming its intent to pick up 50 additional 50 737 MAX 8.

Garuda Indonesia Boeing737 MAX 8 (foreground) and 787-9 (background) in flight – Rendering, (c) The Boeing Company

Garuda also adding Airbus A350XWBs to their fleet, with an letter of intent for 30 aircraft to join the airline.

Airbus A350XWB Rendering – Image, Airbus.

Qatar Airways topped up its order book with Boeing for an additional 10 Boeing 777-8Xs and four Boeing 777 Freighters

Qatar Airways Boeing 777-8X (foreground) and 777F – Rendering, (c) The Boeing Company

EVA Air is adding to its cargo fleet with an additional five Boeing 777F aircraft too

EVA Air 777F – Rendering, (c) The Boeing Company

Meanwhile, over at the Airbus stand, there are some rather big purchases too.

GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) kicked off the frenzy with an order for 60 A320neo aircraft, bringing up their total commitment to 465 A320neo series aircraft. GECAS will lease these onto other airlines.

GECAS Leasing A320neo (although its doubtful you’ll ever see one painted like this) – Rendering, Airbus.

Airbus has also managed secure a major launch today, with Saudia to launch the A330 Regional aircraft, with an order of 20 aircraft.

The A330-300 Regional is the high-capacity passenger-optimised version of the A330 which is designed for regional and domestic operations – a high-capacity people mover over the short routes if you like – with options to configure the plane with up to 400 seats.

Saudia will also expand its narrowbody operations with an order for 30 Airbus A320 current generation aircraft.

Onto the smaller bodied aircraft with Embraer who have scored a fair amount of orders today.

United Airlines added an additional 10 E175s with options for an additional 18 extra aircraft

Alaska Airlines ordered eight E175s (to be operated by SkyWest Airlines

Meanwhile, Aircastle (another lessor) has added another 15 Embraer E-190s and 10 Embraer E2-E195s, increasing the pool of aircraft to be leased.

Finally, Embraer gained an order from a new Chinese carrier called “Colorful Guizhou” with an order for seven E190s with options for 10 further aircraft.

Over to ATR who have been racking up a small pile of orders, with Spain’s Canary Islands airline Binter today signed an agreement for the purchase of six new ATR 72-600, whilst Japan Air Commuter is adding to its fleet with an order of 8 ATR42-600s, plus 1 option and 14 purchase rights.

Next up Bombardier has been out in full force – mainly trying to drum up business on CSeries aircraft, with Swiss converting ten of its CS100 aircraft to CS300.

Bombardier also painted up one of their CSeries test aircraft into Swiss’s livery for the Paris Air Show… and rather smart it looks too:

Swiss and Bombardier are aiming to push the CS100 into service in mid 2016 – with the first routes to be announced in early 2016. For those of you looking forward to flying this aircraft, Swiss will not install proper business class seating in thee – but instead keep the 2-3 seating aboard, with an empty seat next to a sitting passenger for its “Business Class” service.

Bombardier also added an order from WestJet Encore for Eight Dash8-Q400 aircraft.

Perhaps the final surprising order of the day was an order for COMAC’s C919, with Chinese lessor Ping An Leasing filing for 50 aircraft, and Puren Group signing for seven C919s and seven ARJ21s.

This takes the C919 programme over the 500 aircraft mark.

For a seemly “quiet” air show, it seems that a fair amount of business has been conducted and orders raised to keep the airframers in business.

Related