A bumper week for the Airbus A320neo
Air Asia made a huge splash at the Paris Air Show today, announcing an order for 200 A320neo aircraft. Add that 200 to orders they already have on the books and Air Asia’s total firm commitment sits at a whopping 375 aircraft. This number swells to north of 500 aircraft when the existing 89 A320 family frames in service and the 38 widebodies to be operated by Air Asia X are factored in.
This order is of tremendous importance if you are rooting for Air Asia or Airbus. Clearly, the Air Asia brain trust is confident enough in its growth plan to bet the farm. If I were an LCC in their neighborhood I would be very concerned indeed. For Airbus, a deal of this size will dispel the ridiculous banter that the NEO program was too little too late. This massive order and the laundry list of others placed for the NEO this week should have the bubbly flowing in Toulouse for quite some time. Santé!
