Yes, we predicted it last month in our preview: Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, Air Arabia all still have plenty of aircraft in their backlogs from previous (Dubai) airshows, so they weren’t looking for more this year. The only orders from the Gulf region came from Emirates for two Boeing 777Fs plus 28 Airbus A320neo-family for Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways, which we discuss later. These two orders perfectly sum up the themes of this year’s Dubai Airshow: freighters and low-cost.
After the Airbus board gave formal approval in July, it was just a matter of ‘when’ the first customer order for the A350 Freighter would materialise. It came on Day 2 from Air Lease Corporation (ALC) who signed for seven examples. While ALC has previously launched the A321LR, A321XLR, and A330neo, seeing the lessor open a freighter’s order book was somewhat surprising. It hasn’t any dedicated cargo aircraft in its portfolio and has always been reluctant to add some. But the COVID crisis has spurred demand for full freighters and this trend is here to stay.
“E-commerce is now a stabilising factor and it’s a growing factor. That’s why we want to have freighters now”, said John Pluege…
