Japan Airlines yesterday said it had ordered 10 new Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft as part of a five-year business plan.
The announcement is in addition to an existing order for 35 Boeing planes and is part of a ¥489 billion (US$6.2 billion) capital expenditure program.
It also said it had an option to buy 20 more aircraft from the US-based aviation giant.
Photo: Bloomberg
The Japanese carrier — which is emerging from years of restructuring after filing for bankruptcy in 2010 in one of the country’s biggest-ever corporate failures — said it would use the new aircraft on its medium and long-haul routes.
Separately, Indonesia’s Garuda is to buy six Bombardier CRJ1000 next-generation jets with an option for 18 more in a deal of up to US$1.32 billion, the Canadian aircraft maker said yesterday.
The six firm orders cost US$297 million, Bombardier said in a statement issued at the Singapore Airshow.
If Garuda exercises the 18 options, that would raise the deal to “approximately US$1.32 billion,” the firm said.
Garuda president and chief executive Emirsyah Satar said the CRJ1000 NextGen would meet the flag-carrier’s requirements for 100-seat planes to service domestic and regional markets.
A Garuda statement, issued separately, said the carrier would take delivery of five of the aircraft in the fourth quarter of this year.
They are to be used on high-density short and medium-range routes out of its domestic hubs in the cities of Makassar, Medan and Balikpapan.
Meanwhile, Airbus said yesterday that the Asia-Pacific region would take delivery of 9,370 new aircraft in the next 20 years valued at US$1.3 trillion.
That would account for 34 percent of new planes with more than 100 seats entering into service worldwide over that time, propelling the Asia-Pacific region to overtake North America and Europe as the world’s biggest aviation market, Airbus said.
Passenger growth in the Asia-Pacific region is forecast to rise by 5.9 percent a year over two decades, outpacing the projected global average of 4.8 percent, it added.
“We are firmly anchored in this region. We are not reorienting our business, but we are focused on this region,” Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders said at a press conference at the Singapore Airshow. “Our business is not moving East, it has moved East, in Asia already.”
The firm said the Asia-Pacific region accounted for half of its record orders — or about US$85 billion at list prices — of 1,600 planes last year.
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