Airliner Makers Collect $7.45 Billion in New Orders

Lufthansa plans to assign 10 A320s on order to its Eurowings low-fare subsidiary. (Photo: Airbus)

September 17, 2014, 6:01 PM

A series of new order announcements involving no fewer than three major civil airframe makers signaled the end of a late-summer sales lull on Wednesday, as airlines went on a new buying spree reminiscent of July’s Farnborough airshow. The value of the day’s orders totaled some $7.45 billion at list prices and involved 86 airplanes ranging in size from the Embraer E175 regional jet to the Boeing 787-9 widebody. 

A pair of contracts between Airbus and Lufthansa covering a total of 25 A320-family jets led the day’s order windfall in terms of dollar value. Worth $3.25 billion, those contracts call for delivery of 15 A320neos to Lufthansa Group member Swiss and another 10 current-generation A320s to low-fare subsidiary Eurowings. Lufthansa plans to send another 13 A320s from its current backlog to Eurowings starting next year, as it seeks to expand its budget offering in Europe in much the same manner Air France plans to challenge discount incumbents on the continent with its Transavia subsidiary.

For its part, Boeing finalized an order for six 787-9 Dreamliners and five 737 Max 9s with Irish leasing company Avalon. Worth $2.1 billion at list prices, the deal closes on a commitment announced at the Farnborough show and introduces the first 787s into Avalon’s portfolio. It also raises the number of 737 Max narrowbodies on its books to 20.

As a result of yet another $2.1 billion deal, Brazil’s Embraer padded its backlog of E-Jets by 30 airplanes after Republic Airways of the U.S. offset a 20-airplane order cancellation by the UK’s Flybe with a firm order for 50 E175s. Republic, which has agreed to fly the airplanes in United Airlines colors, expects deliveries of its latest batch of E-Jets to start during next year’s third quarter and extend into 2017. Having already taken delivery of 34 of a firm order for 47 E-175s it placed in January last year, Republic also retains options on another 32 of the 76-seat jets.

Under the terms of an amended capacity purchase agreement with United, Republic will begin to remove its 31 Bombardier Q400 turboprops in January; it then plans to sublease 24 to Flybe. The UK airline's fleet restructuring plan calls for a recommitment to the Canadian turboprops and de-emphasis on the Brazilian jets, delivery of 24 of which it had deferred before ultimately canceling 20. Now flying 45 Q400s and 11 E175s, it plans to take the 24 additional turboprops over a two-year period starting in March next year and the four remaining E-Jets in 2018.