During the 2009 Dubai Air Show, Airbus announced commitments across its broad product range covering a total of 33 aircraft, valued at over US$5.3 billion. These commitments include firm orders for 15 aircraft worth more than US$3.6 billion, plus memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreements for a further 18 aircraft totalling around $1.7 billion.
The highlights of the show included firm orders for Airbus’ newest products: from Air Austral for two A380s worth $655 million, and from Ethiopian Airlines for 12 A350-900s worth $2.9 billion. In addition, Comlux placed a firm order for one Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) worth $75 million.
The MoU commitments included: 10 A320s worth $770 million from Yemenia Airlines; four A320s plus two A330-200s together worth $670 million from Senegal Airlines; and one A320 plus one A330-200 worth $258 million from Nepal Airlines.
In addition to these, Airbus announced in Dubai the launch of its new “Sharklet” large wingtip devices, specially designed for the A320 Family to reduce its fuel burn by around 3.5 percent and improve both payload-range and climb performance. Air New Zealand is the launch customer for the Sharklets which are specified for its future A320 fleet.
John Leahy, Chief Operating Officer, Customers commented: “We had a good airshow – better than many expected. But our industry is not out of the woods yet. There will be a difficult winter ahead of us, but with the deals we made in Dubai and the interest in our products that we saw here, spring may not be that far away.”
Airbus’ success is founded on innovative design, which has given it the world’s most modern aircraft family in every category from 100 to 525 seats.
© 2009 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
