Paris Air Show
SIA busy in Paris
July 1st 2013
Singapore Airlines (SIA) led Asian buyers at the Paris Air Show in June, but orders from Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern airlines, in general, were thin on the ground. Read More »
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| Singapore Airlines: added to its orders for B787s and A350s |
This reflected the fact that most of the region’s major carriers and low-cost operators had placed their medium to long-term fleet orders in the past two years.
There was plenty of activity elsewhere, however, and while days of torrential rain may have dampened proceedings at the show, the mood of manufacturers was upbeat as they added to already bulging order books.
Airbus beat Boeing for confirmed sales by a short head, with orders for 466 aircraft worth $69 billion. The Seattle manufacturer sealed agreements for 442 new planes worth $66 billion at list prices.
The European planemaker’s newest widebody model, the A350 XWB, took a bow with its first public appearance at the show. The aircraft, designated MSN1, had completed its first test flight a week earlier.
The widebody battle between Airbus and Boeing turned out to be the hot topic of the show. Airbus is fielding the A350-900 and a larger A350-1000. Boeing is pushing its B787 Dreamliner – it launched a new, larger version, the B787-10 at Paris – as well as a proposed new version of the B777, the B777X.
Boeing put the trauma of its Dreamliner grounding of earlier this year behind it when it announced 102 provisional orders for the -10 version, worth nearly $30 billion at list prices. The buyers were leasing companies Air Lease Corporation with 30 planes and GE Capital Services (10) along with carriers Singapore Airlines (30), United Airlines (20) and British Airways (12).
United’s order included 10 new planes and 10 conversions from the earlier B787-9 model, due to fly later this year and enter service with launch customer, Air New Zealand, in 2014.
Airbus gained 69 more orders and commitments, worth $21.4 billion, from four customers on different continents for its A350 series. Air France-KLM placed a firm order for 25 A350-900s, Singapore Airlines (SIA), already a large customer for the type, ordered 30 more A350-900s, United Airlines placed an additional order for 10 A350-1000s and Sri Lankan Airlines signed a commitment for four A350-900s.
SIA also took options for another 20 aircraft, firming up a commitment it announced in May. The airline can select either the baseline A350-900 or the larger A350-1000 when exercising the options. This is the third order from SIA for the plane, bringing its firm orders to 70, plus 20 options.
Deals involving the region included an order for five B747-8 Intercontinental jets from Korean Air. The carrier also announced it planned to buy six B777-300ERs. Hong Kong Aviation Capital purchased 60 of the A320neo family.
While no firm order was announced, Tokyo-based Skymark Airlines said it intended to select the B737 MAX as its next generation single-aisle aircraft. This would make it Japan’s first airline to order the plane.
Sales of the A380 have been slow in the past year, but the world’s third largest widebody lessor, Doric Lease Corporation, announced an order for 20 in Paris.
The major enginemakers were not to be outdone at the show. GE Aviation and its joint venture partners took orders worth $26 billion, including an $8.6 billion order from AirAsia for jet engines and services such as the next-generation LEAP engines.
Rolls-Royce increased its order book by $5 billion, including a $1.4 billion order from Philippine Airlines for Trent 700 engines and services.
