Airbus bags mainstay jet deal after lackuster expo

Bloomberg

The first all-new order for Airbus SE’s mainstay A320 jet of this week’s Farnborough International Airshow was distinctly lacking in the hoopla that usually accompanies deals unveiled at the world’s leading aviation expo.
The $2 billion transaction from Latam Airlines Group SA of Chile was communicated by email at the show in the UK, when most show delegates were still at their hotels.
Airbus’s slim order haul and publicity restraint contrasts with previous shows, where the European manufacturer made a big splash with commercial announcements to a packed audience, often in rapid succession. Management relished the closing press conference, where executives needled the US competition and touted their wins before heading back to Toulouse with a bulging order book.
This time round, Airbus Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury and his sales chief, Christian Scherer, had left the event even before the final day and Airbus confirmed that it would hold no formal closing media conference.
The duo’s early exit came amid a dearth of orders for the European planemaker and as rival Boeing Co trotted out a raft of deals including three-figure sales for its 737 Max narrowbody, which competes with the A320neo.
Agency Partners analyst Nick Cunningham said that, overall, the order haul from an event so keenly anticipated after a long-time absence of such gatherings due to the coronavirus crisis has been “pretty modest” by historical standards.
Boeing “did a little better than expected,” he said, even as it grapples with glitches with the 787 Dreamliner and years of delays to the 777X.
The US company continued to announce new business late into the expo, and a commitment from Cargolux Airlines International SA for 777-8F freighters. Ihssane Mounir, senior vice president of commercial sales, said Boeing has had “a very gratifying week” in terms of its order success but understands that it needs to do more to turn the corner on its production issues.
“We are incredibly thrilled and very humbled by our customers,” he said. “It’s a journey.”
Latam’s Airbus order is for 17 A321neos, the largest variant in the planemaker’s single-aisle family, according to the emailed release. South America’s biggest airline has also “confirmed to bring in” the long-range A321XLR, though the statement didn’t specify if that model is part of the order.
Airbus’s relatively poor showing was partly expected, with its order backlog already swollen by the early sales success of the A320neo, a re-engined version of an older plane that was launched before the similarly upgraded Max.
The A320 consolidated its dominance when the Max was grounded after two fatal crashes. But with the waiting time for the Airbus model now stretching beyond five years for most airlines and the Max cleared to fly again, Boeing is making up for lost time.
Airbus did announce another chunky A320 deal at Farnborough, with British discounter EasyJet Plc, but the order for 56 planes had already been telegraphed last month and was awaiting shareholder signoff.