LONDON – Compared to the last three days of busy periods at the Dubai Air Show, it has been a lot quieter today, which has been unsurprising.
There have been sporadic bits of news here, there, and everywhere, but nothing as pertinent to actual aircraft orders per se.
So, without further ado, let’s get into it:
Akasa Air Selects LEAP-1B For 737 MAX Order
Akasa Air & CFM have today signed a $4.5bn deal for LEAP-1B engines that will power the airline’s 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that the airline ordered yesterday.
The deal will result in around 144 engines being added to CFM’s backlog in a heavily substantial deal for the engine manufacturer.
Commenting on the news was Philippe Couteaux, Executive VP of Sales & Marketing for CFM International:
“We are proud to develop a strong relationship with Akasa and play a key role in the launch of their operations by providing them with the industry-leading asset utilization, fuel efficiency, and overall cost of ownership,”
“On behalf of the entire team worldwide, it will be a great honor to help launch this new airline with the industry-leading support and reliability that has become a hallmark of CFM International.”
Comlux Sells First ACJ TwoTwenty
Comlux also announced today that the first ACJ TwoTwenty has been purchased by Five Hotels, which is a resort company that offers experiences through lifestyle hotels, gourmet dining, and entertainment.
According to Comlux, the cabin outfitting process will begin on January 2, 2022, with the aim of delivery and entry into service by early 2023.
The company also confirmed that the aircraft will feature the registration of 9H-FIVE.
This, in Airbus’ unfortunate case, does not represent an actual deal done on their side, as Comlux had previously ordered two of the type back in October 2020, with Comlux being the launch customer for this aircraft.
Airbus gains first A220 and A330 Flight Hour Services Customers
The only sort of agreement made by Airbus on the commercial aviation side today came from the manufacturer’s Flight Hour Services wing.
Airbus secured its first customers in Africa on the FHS side of the business, with Air Tanzania signing agreements for services on its A220s and Uganda Airlines for its A330neo.
These two airlines will benefit from comprehensive material services including on-site-stock, access to Airbus’ spares pools, and components engineering and repair services around the world. Airbus will guarantee spare parts availability, generating value through increased fleet availability and operating maintenance costs savings.
Airbus’ FHS helps to secure fleet entry into service through an easy maintenance set-up and access to an established industrial set-up while maximizing the aircraft availability through component reliability.
Notably, for A220 customers FHS offers a large stock availability, both for on-site stock management and parts pooling, and a dedicated operational supply chain already supporting the type’s growing customer base.
Qatar Airways Receives Visit from Boeing’s 777X at Doha
The Boeing 777X testbed that was at the Dubai Air Show commenced a flight earlier today from Al Maktoum to Doha to highlight the aircraft to Qatar Airways, a customer of the 777X.
With a lot of talk surrounding when the aircraft will actually enter service, Boeing has been making the rounds with big customers of the aircraft type in order to address such concerns.
Qatar Airways placed an order for 60 777Xs back in July 2014, meaning by the time the aircraft enters service in 2023, the airline would have been waiting nearly 10 years for this jet.
But this concern of lateness doesn’t seem to be affecting or bothering the airline that much.
According to data from RadarBox.com, BOE001 departed from Al Maktoum at 08:22L time, where the Dubai Air Show is being held currently, and flew 45 minutes west to Doha to see their valued customer.
With Qatar Airways expected to make an order at the Dubai Air Show as well, this comes as no surprise either, as Boeing is evidently trying to sweeten the deal before an announcement is made.
Breakdown of Orders This Week
Whilst it has been quiet today, the team at AviationSource was able to put together a table of all of the orders that have happened this week for the respective manufacturers themselves, with Airbus still ahead by around 303 aircraft against Boeing.
You can see the table below:
| Airbus | Boeing | ATR | Embraer |
| Indigo Partners – 255 aircraft: Wizz Air: 102 aircraft (75 A321neo & 27 A321XLR) Frontier: 91 aircraft (A321neo) Volaris: 39 aircraft (A321neo) JetSMART: 23 aircraft (23 A321neo & 2 A321XLR) | Icelease – 11 737-800 Converted Freighters | TAROM – 3 ATR72-600s | Overland Airways – 6 E175s |
| Air Lease Corporation – 111 aircraft: 25 A220-300s 55 A321neos 20 A321XLR 4 A330-900neo 7 A350 Freighters | DHL Express – 9 767-300 Converted Freighters | Toki Air – Unknown number in LoI – Ordered ATR42-600STOL | |
| Jazeera Airways – 28 aircraft: 20 A320neos 8 A321neos | Emirates – 2 777 Freighters | Afrijet – Three ATR72-600s | |
| Ibom Air – 10 A220s | Sky One FZE – 3 777-300s | ||
| Air Tanzania – 4 aircraft: 1 787-8 Dreamliner 1 767-300 Freighter 2 737 MAXs | |||
| Akasa Air – 72 737 MAXs: Will consist of a mix of MAX 8 & MAX 200 Gamechangers | |||
| Total: 404 | Total: 101 | Total: 16 (More depending on details of Toki Air LoI) | Total: 6 |
With things being pretty quiet today, it’s probably true to say that we won’t expect that many more orders as the final day of the airshow commence tomorrow.
