Airlines appear to be on a buying spree at the biennial Dubai Air Show, with Boeing snagging billions of dollars worth of orders, many for widebody models, and Airbus announcing new sales as well.
Airbus is expected to announce a large order with Turkish Airlines during the show, possibly involving as many as 350 planes, although some sources say it will be fewer.
Many of the new orders already announced are for two-aisle widebody planes, a possible shift in order trends, which have lately largely included swarms of single-aisle 737s and A320/321 models.
The show, which will continue for several days, is one of the traditional times for making and announcing deals, and is expected to turn up as many as 400 orders for the two big planemakers.
Among the big deals so far:
- 90 more 737 MAX planes in orders from Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa's joint subsidiary SunExpress
- 30 787s for low-cost carrier flydubai
- 55 777-9s and 35 777-8s, for Emirates, the largest operator of 777s, as well as an order update to 15 787-10s and 20 787-8s for a total spend around $52 billion
- 11 787s and 20 737 MAXs for Ethiopian Airlines and options for 36 more
- Two more 787-9s for Royal Air Maroc and four for Royal Jordanian
On the Airbus side of the ledger, with some deals yet to be announced, the big news so far is AirBaltic's order for another 30 A220-300s. The airline flies only A220-300s; it was the launch carrier for the model and has the largest fleet already; with the new order it will grow to 80 planes, and pass Delta as the largest operator of A220s overall; most of Delta's 64 are the smaller A220-100.
Airbus also notched a deal with Emirates for 15 A350-900s, a small order compared to what was once expected to be a major buy of A350-1000s, seen as a possible replacement over time for Emirates' large fleet of A380s. A dispute over the engines used for that plane and its maintenance needs has put that plan aside, at least for now.
The other major Airbus news, not fully confirmed, is a Turkish Airlines order for 240 A321neos and A350s, with options for more. The deal is said to focus on the narrow-body A321, and is part of a Turkish plan to grow its fleet to 800 planes by 2033. Turkish is also working on a large Boeing order.
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