The Dubai Airshow has continued to bear fruit for Airbus as it announces the signing of a letter of intent (LoI) with Air Lease Corporation (ALC) for 111 aircraft, the second largest order of this year’s event for the European airframer.
Covering all the firm’s main models, the agreement is for 25 A220-300s, 55 A321neos, 20 A321XLRs, four A330neos and most notably, seven A350Fs.
The deal – which is due to be finalised in the coming months – positions ALC as the launch customer for the newly announced freighter variant of the popular widebody.
“This new order announcement is the culmination of many months of hard work and dedication by both organisations to optimise and fine tune the size and scope of this large aircraft transaction in view of the rapidly growing global airline demand to modernise their jet fleets through the ALC leasing medium,” said Steven Udvar-Hazy, executive chairman of Air Lease Corporation. “After lengthy and detailed consultations with several dozen of our strategic airline customers around the world, we are focusing this comprehensive order on the most desirable and in demand aircraft types.”
Udvar-Hazy, added: “ALC was the launch customer for the very popular A321LR and XLR versions. Now, we become the launch lessor for the A350F and by far the largest lessor customer for the A220. We had the vision to be first adopters of the A321 and are convinced we have made the right choice again on the A220 and A350F, responding to what we see the market will need in the period of recovery ahead.”
Christian Scherer, Airbus chief commercial officer and head of Airbus International, commented: “ALC is solidifying its order portfolio for the most desirable aircraft types as we exit the crisis and in particular, it has seen the formidable value the A350F brings to the cargo market. ALC’s endorsement confirms the global enthusiasm we see for this quantum leap in the freighter space and we applaud its insightfulness in selecting it and in beating everyone to the finish line for the first A350F order announcement.”
According to the airframer, the A350F offers at least 20% lower fuel burn than the competition and is the only new generation freighter aircraft ready for the 2027 ICAO CO2 emissions standards.
