While Emirates and Air Arabia have ruled out possibilities of placing fresh aircraft orders at the 60th Farnborough International Airshow owing to rising fuel prices, Etihad Airways plans to place an order for between 50 and 100 aircraft during the airshow. The air show takes place from July 14-20.
"Etihad Airways has said for a while that it will order in the summer between
50-100 aircraft, which the airline will need to deliver its flying programme up to 2020 and the Farnborough air show is the perfect venue to make such an announcement," Iain Burns, Etihad Airways' Vice-President, told Emirates Business.
"Fuel cost, fuel efficiency and fuel burn are all factors when choosing new aircraft and new engines. The high cost of jet fuel is a challenge for all carriers and at Etihad we manage the issue through a comprehensive hedging programme for buying fuel," he added.
Burns further said that Etihad has no plans to cancel any of the new routes scheduled for launch this year. "We have no plans to postpone any of the five new routes from Abu Dhabi to Minsk, Kozhikode, Chennai, Moscow and Almaty that we are set to launch this year," he added.
Qatar Airways, meanwhile, has not yet revealed its plans for the airshow, but the Doha-based carrier is expected to make an announcement. "We have a planned press conference at Farnborough. Unfortunately, we cannot say any more on the announcement," said the airline's spokesperson, adding that Qatar Airways had made no announcement at the last Farnborough airshow two years ago.
Sharjah's budget carrier, Air Arabia, also has no plans to place any fresh orders at the Farnborough airshow, according to a company spokesperson as quoted by Zawya Dow Jones. The carrier bought two Airbus A320 aircraft in March 2008 and signed a $3.5 billion (Dh12.8bn) order for 49 Airbus A320s at the Dubai Airshow in November last year.