easyJet announced it exercised purchase options resulting in 12 firm orders of A320neo aircraft for delivery in 2024. According to the British airline, the contract valued at a list price of $1.368 billion is subject to a substantial discount from Airbus.
Concurrently, the low-cost carrier said it would postpone delivery dates of 9 A320neo aircraft and 3 A321neo aircraft resulting in 2021 deliveries reducing by 12 aircraft, and being deferred to delivery dates starting from 2023.
“The agreement […] allows the fleet to meet the planned fleet size for 2021 and is a key demonstration of easyJet’s fleet flexibility which means the airline is able to either increase or decrease the fleet growth programme as well as increase or decrease deployed capital,” commented the airline in its 2019 financial report. Following this agreement, easyJet has 13 purchase options and 58 purchase rights remaining from the deal it signed in 2013.
The new deal brings the carrier’s orders for the A320neo Family to 159, making it the largest customer of the aircraft type in Europe. It puts its overall orders for Airbus single-aisles to 480 from the A320 Family. With 39 A320neo Family aircraft and 294 A320ceo Family aircraft in its fleet, easyjet is also the largest A320 operator in Europe.
According to Airbus, the A320neo Family had received more than 7,000 firm orders from over 110 customers worldwide at the end of October 2019. So far, the manufacturer has secured $30 billion in sales at Dubai Airshow 2019.
Expected results
easyjet reported a 2.7% decrease in revenue per seat at constant currency in the year 2018-2019, a consequence of the uncertainties of the Brexit and the slowdown in the European economy in an increasingly competitive market. However, that measure increase by 0.8% in the second half of the period. “Our self-help initiatives meant we have been able reduce costs and drive a better yield performance which has improved revenue per seat in the second half of the year,” commented Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive.
Due to an increase in capacity, total revenue increased by 8.3% to $8.270 billion, against $7.639 billion the previous year. “easyJet finished the 2019 financial year with a strong performance across the business and a record summer,” said Lundgren, noting that “more customers than ever are coming to easyJet as their airline of choice, with a record 96.1 million customers flying with us this year.”