A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

Airbus landed the Dubai Airshow's first major order on&nbsp;Sunday with a massive deal to provide Indigo Partners and its portfolio of airlines—Wizz Air (Hungary), Frontier (U.S.), Volaris (Mexico), and JetSmart (Chile, Argentina)—with 255 A321neos, including 29 A321XLRs. The European airframer declined to place a value or price tag on the order.

 


Deliveries will begin to “trickle in” to the airlines over the next three years, said Airbus chief commercial officer Christian Scherer, with the bulk of the deliveries to occur in this decade’s second half. Airbus’s U.S. production facility in Mobile, Alabama, will build most of the aircraft.

 


“This order reaffirms our portfolio airlines’ commitment to consistent growth through the next decade,” said Bill Franke, managing partner of Indigo Partners. “We have an optimistic view of the market, and we wanted to be early to the process—that’s our strategy.

 


Wizz Air will take 102 jets, 27 of them A321XLRs. Frontier ordered 91 aircraft, all A321neos, and Volaris signed for 39.&nbsp;JetSmart's order for 23 neos included a pair of&nbsp;A321XLRs. The A321 XLR will fly to a range of&nbsp;4,700 nautical miles.

 


“These are the business models that have been most resilient during the time of Covid,” said Wizz Air group CEO József Váradi, who noted the forthcoming neos will make his and the other airlines “more formidable coming out of Covid.”&nbsp;

 


Scherer noted that only 13 percent of the global airliner fleet consists&nbsp;of the latest-generation airliners and applauded the “environmental value of this purchase decision.”

 


The A321neo incorporates new-generation engines and Sharklet wingtip devices, which together deliver more than 25 percent fuel savings and CO2 emissions reductions&nbsp;while generating&nbsp;50 percent less noise than older-generation aircraft.

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