6/03/2011

CSeries order from Sweden

On June 1st Bombardier announced a new order for the CSeries. Five CS100 and five CS300 will be operated by Malmö Aviation, a small but highly regarded airline. The airline was rated "best national  airline" in Sweden for several times. The roots go back to 1981. In 1998 Malmö Aviation was bought by the norwegian Braathens family and cooperated with Braathens Sverige. Braathens was bought by S.A.S. in 2002 and named S.A.S. Norge, but Malmö Aviation was dissociated before and remained under control of the Braathens family.
This order alone is not significant. But I am pretty sure that we will  see some more orders - likely at the Paris Ais Show, maybe later in the year.

LEAP-X wins first customers

Just a quick note as I am just coming back from a small vacation and saw the news that LEAP-X reportedly got their first two customers - ILFC for the remaining 40 of their 100 A320NEO order and Virgin America for 30 A320neo. The latter is no real surprise, as it was CFM to loose as the incumbent here. Lessors tend to split their A320 orders anyway, so one could anticipate that, too.
The next very-likely-LEAP-X-powered-A320neo-order should be from AirAsia. As Tony Fernandes wants to convert some of the "Classic"-orders and the current Air Asia order is CFM56-powered, a deal including a conversion of orders is only thinkable with CFM.
Still open are TAM with their MoU for 22 A320neo.
During the Paris Air Show we will probably see orders from Republic and Qatar for the A320neo. I would expect Qatar to choose the GTF, as they are also likely to order the CSeries, which is exclusively powered by the GTF. Republic as one of the existing CSeries customers is also a good candidate for the GTF on the A320neo.