International Lease Finance (ILFC) has placed orders for 126 new aircraft, shared almost equally between the Airbus Industrie consortium and Boeing.
The orders from the world's largest aircraft-leasing company are for 61 Boeings, worth $4.5 billion, and 65 Airbuses, worth around $3.9 billion. ILFC has 112 airline customers worldwide, and the orders take its totals of aircraft delivered and on firm order to 266 from Airbus and 455 from Boeing.
The Boeing portion of the new order covers a total of 24 widebodies (two 747-400s, ten 777-200IGW (increased-gross-weight)/300s, seven 767-300ERs and five 767-400ERs) and 37 narrowbodies (six 757-200ERs, and 31 737-600s, convertible to -700/800s, where required).
Deliveries under the new order will start in 1999 and extend beyond 2006, says Boeing. ILFC will be one of the initial customers for the new 767-400ER.
Airbus has secured an order for 15 A330-200 twin-engined widebodies, with some convertible to -300s, and 50 aircraft from the Airbus A320 single-aisle family. Nominally, this will consist of eight A321s, 11 A320-200s and 31 A319s, although some of the latter are convertible to A320/321s.
Deliveries will begin in the year 2000 and will be spread over five years.
Source: Flight International
