April marks numerous milestones in Airbus’ order and delivery activities
Almasalla Travel News – April marked numerous milestones in Airbus’ order and delivery activities, bringing it to a new industry record backlog of 4,973 aircraft that corresponds to more than seven years of production for its jetliner product line.
New bookings for 83 aircraft were logged during the month – led by the largest order ever from Turkish Airlines: composed of 57 new engine option (neo) versions of the Airbus single-aisle A320 Family (53 in the A321neo configuration, and four of the A320neo variant), along with 25 A321ceo (current engine option) aircraft.
With this transaction, Turkish Airlines becomes the latest customer for new engine option members of Airbus’ best-selling A320 Family, bringing total neo orders to 2,125 aircraft from 40 customers.
Completing the activity in April was an ACJ319 corporate jet order from an unnamed private customer. The month’s new business increased total net orders booked by Airbus during the first four months of 2013 to 493 aircraft.
Airbus provided 45 A320 Family aircraft and 13 A330s in April to international customers. One of the A330s was an A330-200F freighter delivered to aircraft leasing company BOC Aviation for operation by Qatar Airways.
Nearly 20 per cent of the jetliners provided in April were for China’s dynamic airline market, consisting of six A321s, four A320s, one A319 and an A330.
Also notable was the fact that a large proportion of April’s overall A320 Family deliveries were made for low-cost carriers worldwide, demonstrating the single-aisle product line’s continued popularity with this demanding airline sector. Such customers adding A320 Family aircraft to their fleets during the month included Europe’s Vueling, easyJet and Wizz Air; IndiGo and GoAir in India; along with Peach Aviation and Jetstar in Japan.
Year-to-date deliveries from January through April totalled 202 aircraft, representing a 10 per cent rate increase from the same period in 2012.
Source : Airbus News Release
