Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

A busy week for narrowbody airliner orders reached a climax on Friday with Boeing’s announcement that India’s Spicejet had placed a new firm order for 100 737 Max 8s. Boeing and Spicejet celebrated the deal, together with a previously revealed contract covering 43 Max jets, another order initially attributed to an unidentified customer for 13 of the re-engined narrobodies and purchase rights for another 50, during signing ceremony in New Delhi on Friday. The value of the commitments, based on list prices, totals some $22 billion.


Spicejet signed the original order for 43 Max jets in 2014. It inked the latest contract—covering the firm order for 100—on December 30.


Spicejet placed its first order with Boeing in 2005 for 737NGs and now operates 32 of those airplanes. It also flies 14 Bombardier Q400 turboprops.


“The Boeing 737 class of aircraft has been the backbone of our fleet since Spicejet began, with its high reliability, low operation economies and comfort,” Spicejet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh. “With the next generation of 737 and the 737 Max we are sure that we can be competitive and grow profitably.”


The announcement comes two days after Airbus announced that Spicejet compatriot GoAir placed a new firm order for 72 A320neos, doubling that low-fare carrier’s backlog of the European narrowbodies to 144. &nbsp;The latest deal, also signed on December 30, represented a conversion of a memorandum of understanding signed during last summer’s Farnborough Airshow. GoAir took delivery of its first A320neo last June and now flies a fleet of four neos and 19 A320ceos.&nbsp;


Separately, on January 10, U.S.-based lessor Aviation Capital Group announced it had placed follow-on orders with Airbus for 35 A320-family jets, consisting of 30 A320neos, two A320ceos and three A321ceos. ACG has also secured the option to purchase 10 more A320neos.


ACG and its subsidiaries have now ordered 61 A320neos and 97 A320ceos directly from Airbus. Of the 158 aircraft ordered, 66 aircraft remain undelivered.

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