Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Arab carrier Royal Jordanian Airlines and Avalon, a new aircraft-lease company, have been confirmed as the previously unidentified customers for three Boeing 787-8s and twelve 737-800s, respectively. Royal Jordanian’s order is valued at “approximately $500 million” and brings its 787 commitments to 11. 
The airline, the first Middle East carrier to order the 787, had first ordered four examples in 2007; it also plans to lease two each from CIT Aerospace and International Lease Finance Corporation. Royal Jordanian plans to fly initially to Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Toronto. 
"The [airplane’s] superior economics and range capability will allow us to competitively serve North America and other destinations from Amman," said president and CEO Hussein Dabbas. 
Launched two months ago, Avalon now has commitments covering more than 30 Airbus A320s, A330s, and Boeing 737s. The 737-800s announced here yesterday are nominally worth $921 million and were first recorded as orders last December. Avalon chief executive Domnhal Slattery said he expects single-aisle aircraft to comprise 80 percent of the fleet after five years. He is aiming to acquire about 150 machines, thanks to the “deep pockets” of his shareholders: Cinven, CVC partners, and Oak Hill Capital Partners. The lessor has headquarters in Ireland and other offices in Hong Kong, New York, and Shanghai.
Asked about interest in any prospective re-engined 737 that Boeing might offer, Slattery said Avalon had considered the idea for three months. “It is an extremely difficult question and [the project] will have to be paid for,” he said. He believes industry appetite has waned for a re-engined 737. “Ultimately, it is for the customer to decide, [but] we were concerned about residual values.”

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