KE: Confirms C Series Order.

It seems that when Korean Air isn't dinging A380's here and there, it's commiting to orders placed.

Korean Air has placed a firm order for 10 Bombardier CSeries CS300 aeroplanes, converting a letter of intent signed at the Paris Air Show 2011.

Korean Air's confirmation of it going ahead with the CSeries gives the programme a welcome boost with an outstanding build of 133 aircraft.

However, compared to the numbers that Airbus were racking up with the A320NEO and even American's order for 460 Boeing and Airbus aeroplanes, this is very small beer for Bombardier.

Paris 2011: Tuesday Lunchtime Update

Well we're into Day Two of the Paris Air Show, so let's see who's opened up their Chequebooks this morning

Firstly, SAS Group have decided to do a partial fleet renewal and addtion, with the purchase of 30 Airbus A320Neo's

Malaysian Airlines have taken up an option for ten Boeing 737-800s - an addition of aircraft to their fleet

Aeroflot has been busy and has signed a deal for an additional eight Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

CIT Group has signed memorandum of understanding with Airbus for 50 A320neo aircraft form the A320neo Family.

TransAsia (a Taiwanese Airline) have signed for six A321neos as an expansion for it's current fleet. Interestingly, it will operate a mix of Airbus shorthaul aircraft with A320's, A321's, the Sharklet A320 (when they enter service) and at the end point - A321neo.

Norwegian have ordered another 15 Boeing 737-800s (and interestingly have the 1000th ever 737 constructed in their fleet), whilst firming up the 787 order first made in May. However Norwegian are piling on the pressure along with other short haul carriers about the 737 replacement. With Airbus stealing orders with the A320neo/A321neo, this is surely playing on the minds of Boeing Execs...

The surprise of the morning so far goes to Korean Air who as well as providing backup support for Airbus, has signed a letter of intent with Bombardier for up to 10 initial CSeries Jets, with options for 10 more, and purchase rights for an other 10 - a possible 30 jets.

The next top up from Paris will be sometime this evening. Lots of time for more deals to be signed...

Paris 2011: Monday Evening Update

Well I go and turn my back away, and it's been annoucement city. So lets get on with them in no particular order.

Korean Air's A380 comes to save the day for a load of free publicity after Airbus prang their own A380. One less blush to worry about. Now... park the aircraft safely this time please?

Steven Udvar-Hazy's "Air Lease" has been busy signing away today, with firm orders for 11 A330 aircraft, and signing a MOU for 50 Airbus A320neo aircaft.

During the morning, orders were announced for 5 Boeing 777-300ER and 4 787-9 widebodies, as well as 20 firm orders and four options for 737-800.

Meanwhile GECAS also placed an order for 60 A320neo's - a popular airframe this is turning into.

Saudi Arabian Airlines (soon to be SkyTeam member) is ordering four Airbus A330-300s - a follow-on for the eight frames it has placed before.

Bombardier has secured what it calls a "a top-tier carrier" as a launch operator CSeries twinjet. The unnamed carrier is ordering 10 CS100's with options for six more. Bombardier states the customer wishes to remain unidentified for the present time.

And more secrets are about over at Boeing, who have announced that some airline has brought 17 Boeing 747-8i's (15 from one carrier, 2 from another). The actual names of the airlines have not been disclosed at this time, but an order for 15 is a small fleet, where an order for 2 is a tag on to an order. But whom?

Interesting times.

More from Paris and the lunchtime update tomorrow!

BBC talks about Regional Jets, I fall about laughing.

Good olde BBC today released an article on Regional Jets and their trip to the Bombardier factory in Canada.

It will be like this as we head towards Farnborough Air Show 2010, so expect more claptrap like this over the next few days.

Except some of the quotes are instant fall about laughing.

Firstly, the strapline.

Resembling a space rocket, with its pointed nose and the engines fixed to the back of the fuselage, the regional jet is perhaps the most beautiful airliner in the sky.

Excuse me? Beauty, yes is in the eye of the beholder, but a Regional Jet "BEAUTIFUL"? Oh get away...

Since then, the regional jets have grown larger, so these days they tend to seat between 70 and 110 people.

Yes - that's the size of an Regional Jet these days.

And as their slim fuselages have been stretched ever further their appearance has become ever more elegant.

Elegant? Sigh.

"It looks like its got duct tape wrapped around the tip of the wing," giggles one passenger as she drops her hand luggage on a small trolley.


Apparently the overhead bins are too small so only tiny bags are allowed onboard.

That's a winglet dear. And it's probably speedtape too. And small overhead bins? A fact of life on a CRJ-200....

The view from a cramped seat at the back of the barrel of a Bombardier CRJ is equally unimpressive.

And what did you expect? A view of The Sydney Opera House? Wilderbeasts roaming across the Savannah? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? A small metal tube is just that - a metal tube.

From here, the windows appear small, the aisle seems too tight for the Air Canada flight attendants and the odour from the toilet is unpleasant.

Because they've had ages since the aircraft landed for the turnaround needed.. and probably you didn't have the cleanest people on the planet in flight maybe?

The article goes on to talk about the economics of the Bombardier CRJ series  and the upcoming C Series Regional Jets, as well as the challenges.

Not a bad article, but less of the fluff please...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10476908.stm

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Whilst GhettoIFE won't be at Farnborough (as some of us have jobs that won't get us in on Trade days), I'll be doing an end of day wrap up based on the civil aviation news floating around looking mainly at who makes what order, and if there is any interesting IFE news around.

Farnborough coverage begins Monday 19th!

Paris Air Show Day 5: Pretty Graphs at last!

Now that I'm sitting at my desk and for once not cursing CA and their "wonderful" AV products, it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of Paris 2009 - or "The year when 10 Wide Body jet is considered a big order"

New orders on day 5 -
Olympic Airways join the Dash-8 400 party with an order for 5, option for another 5

So lets put this into graphics.



So what are the scores in terms of class? I've split these into 4 categories: Widebody (twin isle jets), NarrowBody (>100 people single isle jets), Regional - Turbofan powered and Regional - Turboprop powered



Sources: Flight, BBC News, Airbus/EADS, Boeing. Graphs show only complete orders - not options or MOU's. So there.

Perhaps the big winners this year are narrow-bodies, and the regional turbofans. In particular, the A320 design seems to be grabbing new share in terms upgrades. The Wizz-Air MOU for 50 A320's is very good news - and will keep a lot of people in jobs hopefully when its signed and converted into a full order.

The Superjet is doing quite well, but to break through to new markets - it needs to find a big "western" operator (for lack of a better geopolitical term) to make it really sell. Again, I'd want to see the performance the jet and how it fits into the new markets well enough. Equally doing well is Bombardier with their CRJs.

We knew it wasn't going to be a long haul year - so we'll drink a mug of coffee to an A350XWB orders by Air Asia X and Vietnam Airways - a sign that they're looking towars the upturn.

In real terms, Boeing has kept very quiet in terms of commerical jets apart three bits of noise -

• The proposed "777-300ER-Plus" which could be a re-winged jet (Boeing - hint - Airbus tried that with the A350 initially), A 787-10 (Much more likey as it could be a simple/slightly complex stretch) or a clean sheet design (is there enough slush money to design a clean sheet aircraft I wonder?)
• The first 787-8 is nearing clearance for first take off at the end of this month
  
• And Qatar airlines getting very narked off with the delays to 787 project and telling Boeing in so many words "Sort it or we'll cancel" (and probably saying it for a lot of other 787 recpieants)

This year we all predicted quiet. But there has been noise thankfully - even on the IFE front and more airlines taking on Panasonic's X Series IFE system, Wireless IFE and a few other neat technologies. In this time of squeeze, some new ideas are sneeking out.

Back to normal next week with irreverent chatter.