Airbus Garners Asian A320 Orders

Airbus has received a mix of firm orders, memoranda of understanding, signed purchase agreements, and leasing opportunities for up to 168 examples of its A320 family of single-aisle jetliners. The customers are all domestic and international carriers based in China and Southeast Asia, a region which the aircraft manufacturer recently identified as a growing market for its products. The announcements have come during the recent 15th Aviation Expo China 2013 in Beijing.

 

Vietnam’s VietJetAir has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for up to 92 A320 Family aircraft and will lease eight more from third party lessors. The agreement signed with Airbus covers 42 A320neo (new engine option), 14 A320ceo (current engine option), and six A321ceo, plus 30 purchase rights for the A320 Family.

 

Low-cost carrier VietJetAir is an existing A320 operator, with eight leased aircraft already in service. The carrier just took delivery of its ninth A320, delivered new from Airbus via the U.S. leasing company AWAS.

 

Qingdao Airlines, a newly established airline based in the Eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, has signed a purchase agreement with Airbus for a total of 23 A320 family aircraft, including five A320ceo and 18 A320neo. The deal is subject to approval from China’s central government, but the first delivery is expected to begin in 2016. The airline plans to start operation in 2014 with leased A320 aircraft.

 

Zhejiang Loong Airlines, an airline based in Hongzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province in Eastern China, has signed a memorandum of understanding for 20 Airbus A320 Family aircraft, including 11 A320ceo and nine A320neo. The new airline has recently been approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for passenger flight operation and plans to start business in 2013 on domestic routes from Hangzhou. The airline has the ambition to start regional and international routes in three to five years.

 

BOC Aviation, the Singapore-based aircraft leasing subsidiary of Bank of China, has placed an additional firm order for the purchase of 25 A320 Family aircraft comprising 13 A320ceo and 12 A320neo family aircraft. The order comprises A320 and A321 variants. The order comes less than a year BOC’s previous order for 50 A320 Family aircraft. Including this latest purchase agreement, BOC Aviation’s cumulative orders for new Airbus aircraft have reached a total of 212 (206 A320 Family and six A330 Family aircraft).

 

The A320neo is offered as an option for the A320 family and incorporates new more efficient engines and large wing tip devices for added fuel savings. At the end of August 2013, firm orders for the A320neo stood at 2,348 from 42 customers.

 

According to Airbus officials, to date, more than to 9,800 A320 family aircraft have been ordered and more than 5,700 delivered to nearly 390 customers and operators worldwide.

 

Also at the Aviation Expo China, Fabrice Bregier, president and CEO of Airbus, has announced a new lower weight variant of its A330-300 wide-body aircraft that is optimized for use on domestic and regional routes in high growth markets with large populations and concentrated traffic flows such as China. “We see strong pent-up demand for efficient and reliable wide-body aircraft connecting mega cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou,” Bregier says.

 

Compared to current A330-300 variants that are adapted to longer-range missions of up to 6,100nm, the new A330-300 regional and domestic variant will seat up to around 400 passengers in economy seats on flights up to 3,000nm and offer cost savings through a reduced operational weight of around 200t. The reduction in fuel burn per seat and maintenance costs from these innovations will result in an overall cost reduction by up to 15% compared with the long-range A330-300 variants, according to Airbus.