Chalk Up Another 80 Narrowbody Orders

Wednesday was a dark day for Boeing, as it announced a six-month delay in first deliveries of its popular 787 Dreamliner. On the other hand, the day was considerably brighter for European rival Airbus -- which has been there before -- as it announced 80 new orders for its popular A320-series narrowbody aircraft family.

Central and Eastern Europe-based low cost airline Wizz Air signed a firm contract with Airbus for 50 additional A320s, taking the total orders of the airline up to 82 A320 aircraft. Asia Pacific low-cost carrier Tiger Airways also confirmed it ordered 30 more A320s, with options for 20 more.

Wizz Air's planes will be configured with 180 seats in a single class layout, and will be used to add service on existing routes, as well as to introduce new destinations.

"Wizz Air has demonstrated its ability for sustainable growth, where cost efficiency is the key to generate market and win competition," said Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi. "Our choice of aircraft plays a big part in this cost efficiency."

Tiger's aircraft will also sport a 180-seat, all-economy layout... and will be deployed on the airline's Asia Pacific and Australian networks that currently extends to 20 services in seven countries, as well as the new Australian domestic operation scheduled to be launched out of Melbourne in November 2007 (pending regulatory approval).

"Tiger Airways is expected to enjoy impressive growth from our Singapore international and Australian domestic networks, and we are expanding our aircraft fleet to meet continued strong demand for affordable air travel across the Asia Pacific region. The new order will take our total fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft to 70, making Tiger Airways one of the region's largest A320 operators," said Tony Davis, Chief Executive Officer of Tiger Airways.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.wizzair.com, www.tigerairways.com