IAG, the airline group, which controls Iberia, LEVEL, and British Airways among others, is reportedly in advanced negotiations with Airbus and Boeing to completely overhaul its medium-haul fleet.
The IAG group, one of Europe’s largest, would be willing to opt for units from either or both manufacturers in order to update its fleet of narrow-body aircraft, according to Reuters. According to the specialist site planespotters.net, IAG airlines operate a total of 362 A320 family aircraft: 40 A319s, 249 A320s, and 73 A321s.
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IAG surprised the industry nearly three years ago by ordering 200 Boeing 737 MAXs – valued at around $24 billion – during the 2019 Paris Air Show. At the time of the purchase, the MAX was still grounded, after the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.
With the pandemic that deal was canceled, and the group began negotiations with the manufacturers again. Reuters sources indicated that Boeing would receive an order for around 50 units, 25% of the original order.
IAG’s chief financial officer, Steve Gunning, had indicated last November that the group would need to add units by 2024, and hinted that such an order would include the 737 MAX. “We think it’s important that there is competition between Airbus and Boeing. The MAX is a very good model,” he remarked at the time.
In addition to the Boeing order, IAG has options to buy Airbus units, pending previous contracts. The only problem with this is the European giant’s backlog of around 7,000 units. Whoever orders an aircraft from Airbus today will receive it, hopefully, by the end of the decade.
