Only six months passed between the first and last delivery to Air China. On November 23rd 2018, Air China received its first Airbus A350. On May 28th 2019, the European aircraft manufacturer delivered the last aircraft to the Chinese carrier. The order was for ten A350-900s from 2010.
But the Airbus employees will soon have to get back to work for the Chinese. Air China announced on Thursday (July 11th) that it will buy another twenty Airbus A350 aircraft. The additional longhaul jets are intended to optimize the fleet mix and increase capacity by around 10 percent, the airline explains in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The first aircraft emerging from the new order will be delivered already next year, the final one in 2022.
High discounts received
The new order is for the -900 variant, but China's third-largest airline reserves the right to switch to the larger -1000 for the last five aircraft. They received a high discount from Airbus and thus paid a very good price, Air China said in the press release.
The new order is an important success for Airbus. At the Paris Air Show, the aircraft manufacturer did not receive a single new order for their flagship model. And so far in 2019, only the Taiwanese start-up Starlux Airlines placed an order for 17 aircraft.
