Big Deals at Dubai Airshow

The annual airliner sweepstakes that is the Dubai Air Show didn’t disappoint as billions of dollars in orders were announced on the second day of the show. Among the biggest was Flydubai’s purchase of 150 Airbus A320neo aircraft and shifting away from its Boeing-only fleet. Smaller in number but close to that deal’s total value was Air Europa’s announcement that it was buying 40 A350-900s. Boeing was certainly not left out of the money flow. It nailed a $38 billion order for 65 Boeing 777X wide-bodies. It also racked up dozens of orders for 787s and 737 MAXes, including a 11-plane deal with Ethiopian Airlines, which lost a MAX in a crash in 2019 that led to the controversial grounding of the fleet.

Meanwhile, geopolitics was a factor for several participants, some of whom didn’t get to the show as a result. Textron was supposed to show its SkyCourier light twin cargo plane that has been touring Africa for the past two months. The company said it wasn’t able to get overflight permits for the trip to Dubai so the plane is continuing its Africa tour. On the other side of the world, a territorial tiff between Japan and South Korea prompted Japanese officials to refuse a fuel stop for the Black Eagles air demonstration team. Demo teams are a big part of the show and the United Arab Emirates debuted the new mounts for its Fursan Al-Emarat team. The UAE air force is now flying the Chinese-built Hongdu L-15 advanced jet trainer. Below is a video of their Tuesday display.