India’s GoAir Places Firm Order for 72 Airbus A320neos

India’s GoAir has selected the Airbus A320neo for its long-term fleet expansion plans, with a firm order for 72 aircraft.

The agreement between GoAir, which bills itself as ‘The Fly Smart Airline’, and Airbus was signed on June 23 at the 49th Le Bourget Airshow.

While GoAir didn’t announce its engine choice for its A320neos at the Paris Airshow, the computer graphic image Airbus provided of an A320neo in GoAir colors shows the aircraft fitted with CFM International LEAP-X engines.

India's GoAir, which bills itself as ‘The Fly Smart Airline', signed a firm order for 72 Airbus A320neos at the Paris Airshow on June 23, 2011. The deal adds to 20 standard A320s the carrier already has in service or on order

Airbus delivered GoAir’s first A320 in 2007 from its original order of 20 A320s placed in 2006. The airline currently operates 10 A320s which have an average age of two years, making GoAir’s fleet the youngest airline fleet in India.

GoAir will take delivery of the other 10 A320s from its original order over the next two years.

“Today we have shown our commitment to the growth of our airline and to our loyal customers. The combined order for 92 Airbus aircraft (20 A320s and 72 A320neo) reinforces our longstanding partnership with the leading manufacturer and the leading aircraft the market has to offer,” says Jeh Wadia, managing director of Go Airlines, which is the carrier’s official name.

“We are delighted with GoAir’s endorsement of our A320neo. As an established operator of the A320, GoAir clearly recognises the benefits and productivity gains of being able to operate A320s and A320neo harmoniously in a single fleet,” says Tom Enders, president and chief executive officer of Airbus.

According to Airbus, the A320neo will have airframe commonality with the existing A320 of greater-than 95 per cent, making it an easy fit into existing fleets while offering up to 500 nautical miles (950 kilometers) more range or two tonnes more payload.

Airbus’ order success with the A320neo family since launching the program in December 2010 has been nothing short of meteoric. Six months after launching the program, the manufacturer has recorded firm orders and memorandum-of-understanding commitments for 1,029 A320neo-family aircraft, making it by far the quickest-selling commercial jet family in history.