Indigo Partners commits to 430 additional Airbus A320neos

Officials from Indigo Partners’ four portfolio airlines signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the purchase of 430 additional Airbus A320neo family aircraft. The aircraft will be allocated among the four ultra low-cost carriers: Frontier Airlines (United States), JetSMART (Chile), Volaris (Mexico) and Wizz Air (Hungary) upon the completion of final purchase agreements between Airbus and the four airlines.

Indigo Partners LLC, based in Phoenix, Arizona, is a private equity fund focused on worldwide investments in air transportation.

The 430-aircraft commitment, comprised of 273 A320neos and 157 A321neos worth $49.5 billion at list prices, was announced at the Dubai Airshow by Bill Franke, managing partner of Indigo Partners, and John Leahy, Airbus COO Customers, Airbus Commercial Aircraft. When added to existing Airbus A320 family orders, the new agreement will make Indigo Partners one of the largest customers by order number for the Airbus single-aisle aircraft family. Airlines in the Indigo Partners family previously have placed orders for 427 A320 family aircraft.

Also present at the announcement were Enrique Beltranena, CEO of Volaris; Barry Biffle, CEO of Frontier Airlines; Estuardo Ortiz, CEO of JetSMART; and József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air. They confirmed their firm’s individual aircraft orders as follows:

Wizz - 72 A320neo, 74 A321neo

Frontier - 100 A320neo, 34 A321neo

JetSMART - 56 A320neo, 14 A321neo

Volaris - 46 A320neo, 34 A321neo

Indigo Partners’ Franke indicated that engine selections will be made and announced later.

CDB Aviation confirms A320neo order
Also during the Dubai Airshow 2017, Dublin-based CDB Aviation Lease Finance DAC (CDB Aviation) officials announced a firm order for 90 Airbus A320neo family aircraft. The agreement was reached in two steps: an original purchase agreement signed in 2014 for 45 A320neo family aircraft, which remained undisclosed to date, and the firming up of the MoU announced at the 2017 Le Bourget Paris Airshow in June 2017 for an additional 30 A320neo and 15 A321neo aircraft.

“By confirming today’s order for 90 A320neos, we have doubled our overall order position for the aircraft family,” said CDB Aviation President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Chang.

The A320neo family has received more than 5,200 orders from 95 customers since its launch in 2010.