Airbus is expected to announce fresh orders at this week’s Farnborough Airshow, to add to its initial sales announcement made last week for its new A220 offering.
The deal that saw Airbus acquire the CSeries programme from Canada’s Bombardier Commercial Aircraft only officially came into being two weeks ago, but just days later it had confirmed a big order from US airline JetBlue for 60 A220-300 aircraft (the rebranded CS300) plus options for 60 more. Deliveries will begin in 2020 when the first five aircraft will be handed over and continue through until 2025, with the additional delivery options for 60 more beginning in 2025.
Interestingly, New York-based JetBlue says it has retained flexibility to convert certain aircraft to the smaller A220-100 if it chooses. The airline also converted an existing order for 25 A320neos to the larger A321neo and adjusted the delivery schedule.
Airbus has said it is putting plenty of its sales and marketing muscle behind the A220, and at Farnborough this week it has an A220 test aircraft and an AirBaltic A220-300 on display in Airbus livery for the first time.
Also on show at FIA 2018 is an A321neo (Wednesday only), two A350-1000s (one test aircraft and one from Qatar Airways), and two A330-900neos (one from launch customer TAP Air Portugal and one test aircraft), which are debuting at the airshow and will be part of the flight display.
Also on static display at the show towards the end of the week will be the manufacturer’s largest widebody, the A380, in the livery of lessor Hi Fly which is pushing the superjumbo in the wet-leasing market.
Written by: Mark Thomas
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