admin On Thursday, Airbus posted its biggest January order since at least 15 years as it carried out order of 31 aircraft deliveries and booked a major leasing that has been in the pipeline for several months.
The company said in January it had taken orders for 296 aircraft which includes the recently finalized order for 102 planes from Air Lease Corp as well as 100 jets from U.S. low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines.
After cancellations which included 20 single-aisle jets from Colombia’s Avianca, it started the year with 274 net orders and balanced by 20 orders for broadly similar aircraft from leasing company BOC Aviation.
The company stated its deliveries from an overseas assembly plant in China had been affected because of the coronavirus outbreak and has joined other local companies in extending a routine shutdown planned for Chinese New Year.
According to industry analysts, Airbus is expected to give targets next week and barring a worsening of the coronavirus crisis could shoot for record deliveries of at least 900 jets in 2020.
The airframer logged 103 orders from US lessor Air Lease – including 52 A321neos and 50 A220s, plus a single A350-900.
It also recorded 100 A320neo-family aircraft from budget carrier Spirit Airlines, an agreement which has given the slow-selling A319neo a particular lift. Spirit’s agreement includes 47 of the smallest variant of the re-engined family.
Both orders were originally disclosed last year but have only newly been firmed.
Air France has confirmed its agreement for another 10 A350-900s. Air Senegal’s order for eight A220s has been included in the January activity as well as deals for 75 A320-family aircraft from lessors CALC, BOC Aviation and Philippine operator Cebu Pacific. The airframer’s latest backlog data shows, Airbus’s net orders for the month reached 274.
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