Paris Air Show 2019

One of the world's largest airline groups announced today it plans to build its future fleet with the Boeing 737 MAX with an intention to purchase 200 MAX jets. International Airlines Group (IAG) and Boeing said the two companies have been in discussions regarding the opportunity and signed a letter of intent at the Paris Air Show in a deal that would be valued at more than $24 billion, per list prices. Although just a letter of intent, IAG is perhaps the first company or order 737 MAX aircraft since the worldwide grounding.

American Airlines has agreed to order 50 Airbus A321XLRs. American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, will acquire 50 Airbus A321XLR aircraft, the new longer-range version of Airbus’ hugely successful A321neo. The purchase agreement includes the conversion of 30 of American’s existing A321neo slots to A321XLRs and incremental orders for an additional 20 A321XLRs.

The A321XLR will have the longest range of any single-aisle commercial jetliner. The added range of up to 4,700 nm will allow airlines to operate the aircraft from U.S. East Coast airports to medium-size European cities. As a further enhancement of the A321neo and A321LR, the A321XLR will have a maximum takeoff weight of 101 metric tonnes without sacrificing performance. The A321XLR is powered by the same engines, and has more than 90 percent commonality with the A321neo.

With a memorandum of agreement signed for 11 A321neo (plus another 14 to be acquired on lease), China Airlines selected this aircraft to meet future requirements in the single-aisle category.

On day 3 of the Paris Airshow, Indio signed an MoU for A321XLR aircraft. Indigo Partners – which has major ownership stakes in four low-cost airlines – signed a Memorandum of Understanding for 50 long-range A321XLR jetliners; its announcement at the Paris Air Show featured (from left to right) Bill Franke, President of Frontier Airlines; Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer; Barry Biffle, Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Airlines; Estuardo Ortiz, Chief Executive Officer & Founder of JetSMART Airlines; and Jozsef Varadi, Chief Executive Officer of Wizzair.

Day 2 of the Paris Airshow from Boeing's perspective.

Day 3 of the Paris Airshow from Airbus' perspective.

KLM appears to have ordered the Embraer E195-E2, 35 examples that will go to its City-hopping arm, The Cityhopper already has near 50 Embraer aircraft ranging between the E175 and E190. The break down of the 35 exactly is 15 are LOIs for firm purchases and then purchase rights for 20 more. The worth of the order is approximately 2.48 billion dollars.

Qantas has jumped on the Airbus A321XLR train and ordered 10 firm for the type but they actually converted 26 A320neo units from a previous order to the 321XLR so now it covers 36 aircraft in the XLR variant. It is possible we can see JetStar and Qantas utilizing these planes when they arrive on delivery but Qantas isn't 100 percent sure at this early stage and will make a decision on routes and carrier as time gets closer.

Qatar Airways is to be the launch customer of the 777X Freighter IF its CEO Akbar Al Baker could get Boeing to create a freighter version of it. The commentary came after Qatar Airways committed to 5 more 777F's worth around 1.8 billion.

The Paris Airshow also had military hardware on show and Embraer had their KC-390 transport. Here is a glimpse of her during the flying display in this video by Stephane Paris.

More of the flying display at the Paris Airshow.

Airbus swept the orders honours for commercial aircraft at this year's Paris Airshow. They netted 595 total orders. 243 were for the 'new' Airbus A321XLR that was unveiled at the show bagging orders from American Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Fly Nas, IAG, Indigo, JetBlue, MEA, Qantas, Saudia, ALC. Boeing on the other hand only managed 234 orders, the majority of which came from a surprise order by IAG for 200 MAX aircraft.

The Paris Airshow via Sam Chui