Dubai Airshow 2021: All the highlights

Yesterday marked the end for the Dubai Airshow 2021, the largest airshow since the Singapore Airshow last year, with over 85,000 attendees. During the airshow period, between the 14th to 18th November 2021, a lot of exciting events took place. Lets take a look at them today.

Indigo Partner's Huge A320 Family Order

The first unexpected event in the 2021 Dubai Airshow was Indigo Partner's order for 1,145 Airbus A321neos and A321XLR. WizzAir is set to receive 102 of the aircraft, consisting of 75 A321neos and 27 A321XLRs, while Frontier will acquire 91 A321neos. Other than that, Volaris is set to take hold of 39 A321neos, leaving the rest to JetSMART.

"This order reaffirms our portfolio airlines'commitment to consistent growth through the next decade. The Airbus A321neo and A321XLR have industry-leading efficiency, low unit costs and a substantially reduced carbon footprint relative to prior models. With these aircraft, Wizz, Frontier, Volaris and JetSMART will continue to offer low fares, stimulate the markets they serve and improve their industry-leading sustainability profile," said Bill Franke, managing partner of Indigo Partners.

Boeing's 777X International Debut

The main highlight of the show was the Boeing 777X's debut flight on the public stage. The high-tech brand-new efficient aircraft was sent on a dynamic flying display and vertical takeoff at the Dubai Airshow, wowing the crowds in an attempt to garner sales for the aircraft.

New Major 737MAX order

On day three of the Dubai Airshow, Indian Carrier, Akasa Air, signed a deal for 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The order consists of some Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Boeing 737 MAX 8200 aircraft.

Vinay Dube, Akasa Air CEO, said: "We are delighted to partner with Boeing for our first airplane order and thank them for their trust and confidence in Akasa Air's business plan and leadership team. We believe that the new 737 MAX airplane will support our aim of running not just a cost-efficient, reliable and affordable airline, but also an environmentally friendly company with the youngest and greenest fleet in the Indian skies."

A350 Freighter's First Order!

Earlier in the year, Airbus launched a freighter variant of the Airbus A350 to challenge Boeing's monopoly in the air freighter market. Today, in the Dubai Airshow, a giant order for the type was placed by Air Lease Corporation, for 111 Airbus A350F.

"This new order announcement is the culmination of many months of hard work and dedication by both organisations to optimise and fine tune the size and scope of this large aircraft transaction in view of the rapidly growing global airline demand to modernise their jet fleets through the ALC leasing medium," said Steven Udvar-Hazy, executive chairman of Air Lease Corporation. "After lengthy and detailed consultations with several dozen of our strategic airline customers around the world, we are focusing this comprehensive order on the most desirable and in demand aircraft types."

Embraer and ATR receives order for multiple airframes.

Brazilian airplane manufacturer, Embraer, has received orders for 3 E175 E-Jets from Overland Airways. Deliveries to the airline are due in 2023.>

Turboprop galore- ATR received multiple orders for the ATR 72-600 gets from Binter Canarias, Air Corsica, TAROM and Afrijet.

Image: © SimpleFlying

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Written by: Sohail Sawlani
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