Tigerair Taiwan AirbusA321neo
Day 2 of the Singapore Airshow saw the first aircraft order for Airbus, albeit a small one. Tigerair Taiwan signed its first direct order with the OEM for four A321neos that will complement its existing Airbus fleet.
Tigerair Taiwan currently operates nine A320ceos and eight A320neos, all leased from various lessors. The first A320neo joined the low-cost carrier in March 2021, and the last in July 2025. All come with a 180 single-class cabin. No details were given about the delivery schedule.
The A321neo allows TigerAir Taiwan to upgauge the fleet to 232 seats, which grows capacity on what it refers to as its “golden routes”. The airline operates from Taiwan to 26 destinations in Korea, Japan, Macau, Vietnam and Thailand.
“By serving more passengers across more destinations with a lower cost per seat, this investment reinforces our position as Taiwan’s leading LCC. Furthermore, it advances our journey toward a younger, more fuel-efficient fleet that meets both our commercial and ESG targets”, Tigerair’s chairwoman Joyce Huang is quoted in an Airbus media release.
Since its launch in 2014, Tigerair used to be a 90/10 joint venture with China Airlines Group and Tiger Airways Holdings, but China Airlines bought the remaining shares to make it a 100 percent subsidiary.
Vietjet Air
On the engine side, Pratt & Whitney and Vietjet Air put signatures to paper for 44 Geared Turbofan engines. They will power 24 A321neos and 20 A321XLRs in Vietjet’s backlog, with deliveries starting in July. The deal comes with 12-year EngineWise customer support.
Vietjet Air announced an MoU for 100 A321neos at last year’s Paris Airshow and finalised the deal in November, which brought total orders to 280 A321neos. With the signing of the P&W order, it now has 137 GTF-powered aircraft on order. This leaves a question mark over the powerplants for the remaining aircraft in the backlog. All of Vietjet’s 43 A321neos in the fleet have P&W engines, but 13 of them are grounded because of maintenance on the PW1100G-JM engines to replace parts with ones that are more durable.
“The GTF engine is powering our growth with industry-leading operating economics and fuel efficiency of up to 20 percent. We continue to trust in the long-term, comprehensive and responsible partnership with Pratt & Whitney”, said Vietjet Managing Director Nguyen Thanh Son in a media statement.
In another engine deal, Rolls-Royce signed a TotalCare agreement with China Airlines for 36 XWB engines. These include 30 XWB-97s on the Airbus A350-1000 and six XWB-84s on the A350-900.
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