On June 16th, Peach Aviation [MM/APJ] signed a firm contract to purchase three Airbus A320-200s. A signing ceremony was held at the Paris Air Show, attended by President Shinichi Inoue, Fabrice Brégier, CEO of the European planemaker, along with John Leahy, its COO. Although this order becomes their first direct order with Airbus, Peach has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Fuyo General Lease for a sale-leaseback arrangement upon delivery in 2016-2017 for the newly-ordered aircraft.
The growing LCC currently operates 14 A320s on lease, with another three to be delivered on lease in FY2015. The latest contract would bring its fleet to 20 by 2017. All seat 180 passengers in a single-class layout. Regarding the re-engined A320neos, Mr. Inoue said "We are evaluating the aircraft under many conditions. It's not that we have declined the A320neo." However, Mr. Inoue reiterated that Peach doesn't intend to equip any of its A320s in service or on order with sharklets, commenting "For short-haul routes, it's not worth the investment. The aircraft simply gets heavier."
Asked whether Peach is considering other A320 family aircraft, Mr. Inoue responded "For now we'll stick with the A320, but if situations change, we would like to react with flexibility." The larger A321 has been studied. Meanwhile, Mr. Inoue showed interest in the Airbus Space-Flex module, which would add six more seats to the A320 by reallocating galleys and lavatories, bringing up capacity to 186.
From its base at Osaka/Kansai [KIX/RJBB] and Okinawa/Naha [OKA/ROAH], Japan's so far most successful LCC currently operates 12 international and seven domestic routes covering 15 destinations. Kansai – Miyazaki [KMI/RJFM] will be added on August 28th (Peach loads Kansai – Miyazaki.) followed by Naha – Seoul/Incheon [ICN/RKSI] on September 4th (Peach announces Okinawa – Seoul.). Tokyo/Narita [NRT/RJAA] (Peach starts Narita to Fukuoka and Sapporo.) and Sendai [SDJ/RJSS] (Peach plans Sendai hub by Summer 2017.) have already been announced as their third and fourth hubs in the future. Mr. Inoue declined to comment on the Tokyo/Haneda [HND/RJTT] – Taipei/Taoyuan [TPE/RCTP] launch (Peach plans Narita hub and Haneda – Taipei.).
Source: Airbus, June 16th. (in English)
Source: Aviation Wire, June 16th. (in Japanese)
Source: Fuyo General Lease, June 17th. (in Japanese)
 |
| Airbus A320-214 JA801P makes its maiden flight back on October 14th, 2011. Peach has since (conservatively) built its fleet to 14, becoming the so far most successful LCC in Japan. (Photo: Airbus) |
The growing LCC currently operates 14 A320s on lease, with another three to be delivered on lease in FY2015. The latest contract would bring its fleet to 20 by 2017. All seat 180 passengers in a single-class layout. Regarding the re-engined A320neos, Mr. Inoue said "We are evaluating the aircraft under many conditions. It's not that we have declined the A320neo." However, Mr. Inoue reiterated that Peach doesn't intend to equip any of its A320s in service or on order with sharklets, commenting "For short-haul routes, it's not worth the investment. The aircraft simply gets heavier."
Asked whether Peach is considering other A320 family aircraft, Mr. Inoue responded "For now we'll stick with the A320, but if situations change, we would like to react with flexibility." The larger A321 has been studied. Meanwhile, Mr. Inoue showed interest in the Airbus Space-Flex module, which would add six more seats to the A320 by reallocating galleys and lavatories, bringing up capacity to 186.
From its base at Osaka/Kansai [KIX/RJBB] and Okinawa/Naha [OKA/ROAH], Japan's so far most successful LCC currently operates 12 international and seven domestic routes covering 15 destinations. Kansai – Miyazaki [KMI/RJFM] will be added on August 28th (Peach loads Kansai – Miyazaki.) followed by Naha – Seoul/Incheon [ICN/RKSI] on September 4th (Peach announces Okinawa – Seoul.). Tokyo/Narita [NRT/RJAA] (Peach starts Narita to Fukuoka and Sapporo.) and Sendai [SDJ/RJSS] (Peach plans Sendai hub by Summer 2017.) have already been announced as their third and fourth hubs in the future. Mr. Inoue declined to comment on the Tokyo/Haneda [HND/RJTT] – Taipei/Taoyuan [TPE/RCTP] launch (Peach plans Narita hub and Haneda – Taipei.).
Source: Airbus, June 16th. (in English)
Source: Aviation Wire, June 16th. (in Japanese)
Source: Fuyo General Lease, June 17th. (in Japanese)
No comments:
Post a Comment