With over 1500 exhibitors, Farnborough Airshow is one of the preeminent airshows on the aerospace calendar every two years. The small town in the UK has a dramatic spike in visitors for just 5 days as airlines, aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, media, tech companies and aviation enthusiasts swarm the normally sedate airport. As the 2024 Farnborough airshow draws to a close, we take a look at some of the big aircraft orders that defined the week.
Kicking off with Korean Air
The week started with a ground-breaking announcement from South Korea’s flag carrier. Korean Air announced the purchase of 20 Boeing 777-9s and 20 Boeing 787-10s. They also added options for a further 10 of the Dreamliners. According to the airline’s CEO, these aircraft are set to first enter the Korean Air fleet in 2028. This fits in nicely with the set of Airbus A350-1000s and A350-900s which Korean Air ordered earlier this year. The order gives them a total of up to 83 new aircraft coming to the fleet.
Japan Airlines boosts long-haul fleet
Japan Airlines (JAL) finalized an order with both Airbus and Boeing on Monday and Tuesday to increase the capacity of its long-haul aircraft. On the Boeing front, a renewal of the Japanese flag carrier’s 787 dream liners, ordering a further 10 Boeing 787-9s. Japan Airlines currently has 22 Boeing 787-9s in its fleet, which can be found in the ‘Aviation data’ section of Flightradar24.
On Tuesday, the carrier then finalized a large order with Airbus, topping up on both medium and long-haul aircraft. It ordered 20 Airbus A350-900s, and 11 Airbus A321neos. This is a change from the 21 Airbus A350-900s originally announced in March. JAL Senior Vice President of Procurrement, Yukio Nakagawa, put this down to the incident with the A350 in January. He said that the 21st would be a replacement for this aircraft, but that the airline had decided against it.
New neos for Virgin Atlantic
Perhaps the highlight of the show was Virgin Atlantic opting to purchase an additional 7 Airbus A330neos. This was, conveniently, announced on board their Airbus A330neo, on static display at the airshow, titled “Ruby Rebel”. The London-based airline’s CEO, Shai Weiss, announced that these would finally replace the carrier’s ageing fleet of Airbus A330-300s.
According to Airbus commercial aircraft CEO Christian Scherrer, these are set to start delivery in 2028. This comes as a part of Virgin Atlantic’s £17 billion fleet transformation, resulting in a group of 45 modern commercial aircraft by 2028. Mr. Weiss said that they would station 40 of these aircraft at London Heathrow, and a further 5 at the carrier’s Manchester hub.
flynas increases capacity with larger aircraft
Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier flynas signed a huge order with Airbus, comprising of 75 Airbus A320neos and 15 A330neos. The A330neos could replace those which are currently being wet-leased from Indonesian low-cost carrier Lion Air, and decreasing the fleet age. The 75 A320neos add to its current fleet of 53, increasing capacity across its network. According to Airbus, the new A330neos will seat up to 400 passengers in a two class configuration. The A320neos are expected to be configured similar to those currently in the fleet.
Qatar Airways extends Boeing 777X order
Qatar’s flag carrier has decided to add to its big order of Boeing 777-9 aircraft, bringing the total up from 40 to 60. Factoring in cargo aircraft, the total 777X family aircraft on order for Qatar Airways stands at 94 examples. In addition to this, the airline also opened the airshow by unveiling its “Qsuite next gen” business class product, to be featured on board the 777-9.
Whilst not as busy as in previous years for orders, this year’s Farnborough Airshow saw a decent amount of incremental orders and a few surprise fleet additions. As the sun sets on the airshow for another two years, the new aircraft coming to airlines across the world will still be in the skies for many more years to come.
