The 2016 Farnborough Air Show was held between 14th to 18th July, which attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors as well as an increasing number of aviation trade and industry representatives.
Whilst crowds were being entertained by highly skilled pilots in unison with breathtaking aviation technology, executives from airlines and aircraft manufacturers took the opportunity to secure deals and purchase agreements in this increasingly competitive industry.
The airshow also celebrated the 100th Anniversary of US manufacturer Boeing
One of the highlights of the show from a spectator perspective was the near vertical take-off of an Airbus A350.
One of the main success stories of the year has been the impressive orders of Airbus’s A321neo aircraft and this accelerated during the show with many new orders being confirmed. One of the biggest was with AirAsia for 100 new A321neos worth around €11.3 at current list prices. Norwegian placed another significant order with Airbus for 100 A320neos, and it announced on the final day of the show that it will change 30 of those A320 orders to a long-range version of the larger A321neo, which would be subsequently named as the A321LR.
The A321neo is a single aisle, mid-market aircraft capable of seating a maximum 240 passengers (single class), with a range of approximately 7400 km’s.
Further to the huge orders from AirAsia and Norwegian, Germany’s Germania weighed in with an order of 25 A320neos worth around US$2.6 billion, whilst Virgin Atlantic ordered 12 wide-bodied A350-100s worth US$4.4 billion
