China Eastern Airlines Airbus A320neo
China Eastern Airlines has placed a follow-on order with Airbus for 101 A320neo family aircraft, it said in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday. This order will likely be one of a few more, as previous reports indicated that Chinese carriers could be placing big orders with Boeing and Airbus anytime soon.
The filing says that China Eastern will take delivery of the aircraft between 2028 and 2032, pending government approval for the deal, which is valued at around $15.8 billion in list prices.
The new aircraft order guarantees the inflow of more Airbus narrowbodies into the fleet. From the 102 A320neos on direct order, 85 have been delivered to China Eastern. For the A321neo, the numbers are 27 delivered out of 68 on direct order.
These aircraft are part of the July 2022 order for 100 A320neo family aircraft. At the time, they were scheduled for delivery between 2024 and 2027, so the new order neatly follows that schedule.
In September 2023, China Eastern placed an order for 100 COMAC C919s for delivery between 2024 and 2031. The first C919 joined the airline in December 2022 and entered service in early 2023. There are currently 14 C919s in the fleet (as of February). As COMAC is struggling to ramp up the production capacity at its Shanghai Pudong factory, it is not unlikely that China Eastern has opted for more Airbus aircraft to make sure that it meets its growth targets for the end of this decade.
December orders
China Eastern’s order follows that in December and January, when four Chinese carriers bought 145 Airbus aircraft in separate deals. Air China bought 60 A321neos, Spring Airlines 24 A320neos and six A321neos, Juneyao Airlines 25 A320neos (to be confirmed), and lessor CALC 30 A320neos.
In July 2022, Airbus welcomed an order for 292 A320neo family aircraft from the Big Three airlines. Air China bought 64 for the parent airline and 32 for Shenzhen Airlines, China Southern placed an order for 96 neos plus 19 leases, plus the aforementioned 100 for China Eastern.
Airbus data show that it had unfilled orders from four A319neos and 97 A321neos for Air China, six A350Fs for Air China Cargo, 57 A320neos and 46 A321neos for CALC, 19 A320neos and 85 A321neos for CDB Leasing, five A320neos and 41 A321neos for China Southern Airlines, 23 A321neos for Shenzhen Airlines, three A320neos and three A321neos for Sichuan Airlines, 33 A320neos and 11 A321neos for Spring Airlines, plus 18 A320neos and 18 A321neos for Xiamen Airlines.
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