Airbus has secured a large aircraft order, of a scale usually reserved for a formal signing at an event such as an air show. The airframe manufacturer has announced orders with Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, and Shenzhen Airlines, for a total of 292 A320 Family aircraft. Airbus says that this order demonstrates the positive recovery momentum of aviation and a prosperous outlook for the Chinese aviation market. Once the relevant criteria are met, these aircraft orders will enter the Airbus backlog.
“These new orders demonstrate the strong confidence in Airbus from our customers. It is also a solid endorsement from our airline customers in China of the performance, quality, fuel efficiency and sustainability of the world’s leading family of single aisle aircraft,” said Christian Scherer, Airbus’s chief commercial officer and head of international. “We commend the excellent work by George Xu and the entire Airbus China team as well as our customers’ teams for having brought to conclusion these long and extensive discussions that have taken place throughout the difficult Covid pandemic.”
By the end of May 2022, the in-service Airbus fleet with Chinese operators totalled over 2,070 aircraft. At the same period the A320neo Family had totalled more than 8,000 orders from over 130 customers. Since its Entry into Service six years ago, Airbus has delivered more than 2,200 A320neo Family aircraft.
