Week’s Order Take Tops $11.3 Billion Worth of Airliners

Updated version of story originally posted on September 17

A series of new order announcements involving no fewer than three major civil airframe makers signaled the end of a late-summer sales lull last week, as airlines went on a buying spree reminiscent of July’s Farnborough Air Show. The value of the week’s orders totaled some $11.3 billion at list prices and involved 118 airplanes ranging in size from the Embraer E175 regional jet to the Boeing 787-9 widebody. 

A pair of contracts between Airbus and Lufthansa covering a total of 25 A320-family jets led Wendesday’s order windfall in terms of dollar value. Worth $2.5 billion, those contracts call for delivery of 15 A320neos to Lufthansa Group member Swiss and another 10 current generation A320s to low-fare subsidiary Eurowings. Lufthansa plans to send another 13 A320s from its current backlog to Eurowings starting next year, as it seeks to expand its budget offering in Europe much in the same manner Air France plans to challenge discount incumbents on the continent with its Transavia subsidiary.

More business from the low-fare sector came Airbus’s way on Thursday, when the UK’s EasyJet converted options on 27 A320s to a firm order worth another $2.5 billion. Now flying 203 A319s and A320s, Europe’s second-largest discount airline expects to take delivery of the latest batch of Airbus narrowbodies from next year through 2018, increasing the size of its A320-family fleet to 304.

For its part, Boeing on Wednesday finalized an order for six 787-9 Dreamliners and five 737 Max 9s with Irish leasing company Avalon. Worth $2.1 billion at list prices, the deal closes on a commitment announced at the Farnborough show and introduces the first 787s into Avalon’s portfolio. It also raises the number of 737 Max narrowbodies on its books to 20. Then, on Saturday, Boeing identified Ethiopian Airlines as the customer for another $2.1 billion order covering 20 737 Max 8s. The contract, which includes options and purchase rights on another 15 Max 8s, stands as the largest single Boeing order by number of airplanes from an African carrier.

As a result of yet another $2.1 billion deal, Brazil’s Embraer padded its backlog of E-Jets by 30 airplanes after Republic Airways of the U.S. offset a 20-airplane order cancellation by the UK’s Flybe with a firm order for 50 E175s. Republic, which has agreed to fly the airplanes in United Airlines colors, expects deliveries of its latest batch of E-Jets to start during next year’s third quarter and extend into 2017. Having already taken delivery of 34 of a firm order for 47 E-175s it placed in January last year, Republic also retains options on another 32 of the 76-seat jets.

As part of an amended capacity purchase agreement with United, Republic will begin to remove its 31 Bombardier Q400 turboprops in January and sublease 24 to Flybe. Still in the throes of a fleet restructuring, Flybe has recommitted itself to the Canadian turboprops and de-emphasized the Brazilian jets, first deferring delivery of 24 E175s and now canceling 20 of those. Now flying 45 Q400s and 11 E175s, it plans to take the 24 additional turboprops over a two-year period starting in March next year and the four remaining E-Jets in 2018.