{"id":9403,"date":"2026-05-07T12:23:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/9403\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T12:23:20","slug":"air-asia-order-for-150-airbus-a220-jets-expected-to-be-worth-hundreds-of-millions-for-northern-ireland-aerospace-sector-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/9403\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Asia order for 150 Airbus A220 jets expected to be worth hundreds of millions for Northern Ireland aerospace sector \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

An order for 150 Airbus A220-300 aircraft valued at around $19 billion (\u00a314bn) by budget carrier Air Asia could become one the most lucrative commercial deals in the modern history of the north\u2019s aerospace<\/a> sector.<\/p>\n

Airbus<\/a> said it is the largest single firm order ever placed for the narrow-body aircraft and its Belfast-manufactured wings.<\/p>\n

It comes just five months after Airbus completed the acquisition of the A220 wing and A220 mid-fuselage programmes in the north from Spirit Aerosystems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Air Asia order has been described as Canada\u2019s biggest ever commercial aircraft deal.<\/p>\n

\"Live:<\/a>\"Paving<\/a><\/p>\n

The components, including the Belfast-made wings and fuselage are assembled in both Canada and the United States at production lines in Mirabel, Quebec and Mobile, Alabama.<\/p>\n

\"AA digitally rendered mock-up of an Airbus A220-300 aircraft in the Air Asia livery. <\/p>\n

Launched in 1996, Kuala Lumpur-based Air Asia has built up Malaysia\u2019s largest fleet of aircraft. <\/p>\n

Its founder and CEO Tony Fernandes has described the A220 order as \u201ca $19bn deal\u201d, adding that it could grow to $38bn (\u00a328bn).<\/p>\n

The order is for 150 of the larger version of the A220, which seats up to 160 passengers.<\/p>\n

Mr Fernandes told the Financial Times that if Airbus launched a larger version, he would order another 150 jets from the Toulouse-based airframer.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year it was reported that Airbus would soon start offering the A220-500 to airlines, which would be capable of seating up to 185 passengers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood $19bn relates to the list price of 150 A220-300s.<\/p>\n

That would indicate the A220-300 is currently listed for around $126.6m (\u00a393m).<\/p>\n

But industry reporting regularly points to significant discounts secured by airlines when placing major orders.<\/p>\n

Even with large discount, conservative estimates put the value of the Air Asia order in the region of $500m for the wings alone.<\/p>\n

That could rise to around $1bn over the duration of the contract if fuselage and other work is factored in.<\/p>\n

\"SpiritThe former Spirit Aerosystems operation in Belfast, which has been carved up between Airbus and Boeing. PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

The value for Belfast could potentially double if Air Asia follows through with an order for 150 A220-500 aircraft as suggested.<\/p>\n

Last month, Airbus said it was aiming to assemble 12 A220-300 jets per month in 2026, with the target of increasing that to 13 per month in 2028.<\/p>\n

The latest available financial reporting for the Belfast operation state the A220 programmes remain material to the business, which generated $683m in commercial revenue in 2024, prior to its break-up.<\/p>\n

The acquisition of the A220 programmes in Northern Ireland from Spirit Aerosystems in December formally completed the carve up of the former Short Brothers operation between Airbus and Boeing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Airbus now employ around 1,500 in its manufacturing lines in Belfast, with more than 2,000 moving to Boeing.<\/p>\n

Industry body ADS has said the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors now generate in excess of \u00a32bn annually in the north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An order for 150 Airbus A220-300 aircraft valued at around $19 billion (\u00a314bn) by budget carrier Air Asia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[2321,90,1166,392,7862,7861],"class_list":{"0":"post-9403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-airbus","8":"tag-aerospace","9":"tag-airbus","10":"tag-boeing","11":"tag-manufacturing","12":"tag-shorts","13":"tag-spirit-aerosystems"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}