LONDON – Airbus has announced their first order since the Farnborough Air Show, with German carrier Condor taking up to 41 A320neo aircraft.
Such aircraft will be powered by Pratt & Whitney engines.
“Following Condor’s earlier decision to order the A330neo for its long-haul network, we are double grateful the airline has now also selected the Airbus A320neo Family to modernize its single-aisle-fleet following a thorough evaluation process”, says Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Airbus International.
“We are proud of such a strong vote of confidence and welcome Condor as a future all-Airbus operator”.
“After we will have replaced our entire long-haul fleet with state-of-the-art 2-liter aircraft by the beginning of 2024, it is the logical next step for us to modernize our short- and medium-haul fleet as well”, says Ralf Teckentrup, CEO of Condor.
“With our new A320neo and A321neo aircraft, we are consistently developing our fleet and ourselves as a company, and also taking care of our own aspiration to enable responsibly and, at the same time, comfortable travel with significantly reduced CO2 emissions, significantly lower fuel consumption and less noise”.
This is a significant order for Airbus, and was surprised this wasn’t announced at the Farnborough Air Show last week.
It is also understood the aircraft will feature the new Airspace cabin and the aircraft covered are via lease and direct purchase agreements.
No timetable for delivery of the aircraft has been established as of yet.
Another Middle Finger from Scherer?
It could be suggested that this is yet another middle finger from Scherer, especially with journalists hard-pressing the Airbus sales chief about the lack of orders at the trade show.
Airbus only sold 29 brand new aircraft and tried to even market the easyJet A320neo Family order as a new order, despite being from an original framework signed in 2013.
Scherer did the same on Thursday when he announced an order with LATAM Airlines for A321neo aircraft, with the commitment for A321XLR deliveries.
In this case, Scherer’s comments regarding the conference rooms at the Airbus chalet being busy may be right. There is always the perspective that more orders could be on the way as a result?
Overall…
This is another significant order for Airbus, and will no doubt continue to silence criticism from the media about the lack of orders at the Farnborough Air Show.
However, with this order happening only a few days after the airshow concluded, what took Scherer so long in the negotiations? If Scherer announced this at FIA22, then they could have been a little closer to Boeing on the scoreboard.
Either way, it is going to be interesting to see how many more orders come from Airbus over the course of this year, and whether it will add up to a sufficient tally to take on Boeing and exceed numbers.
