Japan is a key market for any aircraft manufacturer. The country’s demographics, economy and travel habits ensure a constant need for new planes as airlines serve frequent services between cities domestically and internationally. Therefore, winning deals with airlines like JAL is extremely important for Airbus and Boeing alike. After having ordered Boeing wide body planes, JAL has also placed a significant order for both narrow and wide body Airbus planes at the Farnborough Air Show 2024. Here’s the lowdown.
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JAL Orders 31 Wide and Narrow Body Jets from Airbus
While the JAL-Boeing order saw the airline add to an existing order, this second order announced at Farnborough also features a new order. To be exact the airline expanded an existing order and placed a new order at the same time.
- JAL ordered 20 more Airbus A350-900. That is a firm order and doesn’t include any options in the count.
- 11 Airbus A321neo. This on the other hand is a new order, the airline had never ordered any Airbus narrow body planes.
The further 20 A350-900s will join the airline’s long-haul side of operations. That might sound intuitive for those living in Europe, but it isn’t if you know the Japanese aviation market. Airlines very commonly use wide-body planes for domestic flights, including the A350, to cope with higher demand in peak hours. So far, all JAL A350-900s feature domestic cabin configurations with a remarkably high seat density. These further twenty jets will be the first to feature a long range optimised cabin. That means that they will feature a 3-class cabin including Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class.
The A321neo will instead operate domestic flights. That tells us that these eleven planes are the standard version of the successful narrow body plane, not the LR or XLR versions. Therefore, Japan Airlines’ short-haul operations will no longer be Boeing only territory.
