EFW

Airbus has signed agreements for more than 120 single-aisle A320neo Family aircraft on the third day of the Paris Show, when it also sold 20% of its stake in Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) to ST Aerospace.

Owner of Avianca Brasil airline Synergy Aerospace has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 62 A320neo Family aircraft, including ten A350 XWBs, six A330-200, one A330-200 Freighter and 20 A320 Family aircraft.

Reuters estimates the value of the deal to be $6.6bn.

Synergy chairman German Efromovich said: "These 62 A320neo aircraft will make it possible for Avianca Brasil to take an important leap toward growing and modernising its fleet, while improving passenger experience."

An unidentified Asian airline has signed an MoU for 60 A320neo Family aircraft.

"These 62 A320neo aircraft will make it possible for Avianca Brasil to take an important leap toward growing and modernising its fleet."

The two agreements follow the MoU signed by Korean Air for 50 A320neo, including 30 aircraft plus 20 options, on Tuesday. Vietnam’s VietJetAir placed a firm order for six additional A321s.

On Wednesday, ST Aerospace signed the deal to buy Airbus’s 20% share of freight conversion firm Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW).

Airbus will now become a minority shareholder with 45%, while ST’s ownership in Dresden-based EFW will increase to 55%.

Singapore-based ST and Airbus will undertake passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion of A320 / A321 aircraft, with the former providing its specially developed conversion technology.

The A320P2F, with 11 main-deck container positions will have 21t of payload capacity of more than 2,100nm, while the A321P2F with 14 main-deck positions will be able to carry up to 27t over 1,900nm.

The first converted A321P2F will be delivered in 2018.

Image: Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) aircraft. Photo: courtesy of Airbus SAS.