Philippine airline Cebu Pacific has announced an agreement to order 102 Airbus A321neo aircraft, with purchase rights for an additional 50 aircraft.
Cebu has signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus. A final purchase agreement is expected to be signed later in the third quarter, Cebu said. The A321neos can be switched to A320neos under the arrangement.
Cebu says the purchase price “of up to 152 A321neo aircraft” comes to $24 billion based on list prices, making it “the largest aircaft order in Philippine aviation history.”
The agreement is structured to give Cebu “maximum flexibility to adapt fleet growth to market conditions,” CEO Michael Szucs said. The aircraft are due to begin arriving no later than 2029. They will be powered by Pratt & Whitney GTF engines, a type already operated by Cebu.
The deal is consistent with predictions Szucs made earlier in 2024. At that time, he said the carrier intended to place firm orders for about 100 narrowbodies with additional options.
Szucs also had said that Cebu was considering both Airbus and Boeing for the order. However, Airbus was always the most likely choice since Cebu already operates a large fleet of A320-family aircraft.
According to the Aviation Week Network Fleet Discovery database, Cebu has 50 Airbus narrowbodies in service. About half are A320-family aircraft, and the other half are A320neo-family aircraft. The airline also has 11 stored narrowbodies and 25 already on order from Airbus.
At the end of May, Airbus had orders for 6,338 A321neos compared with 4,103 for the A320neo. That is a significant reversal of market shares on the first-generation A320 family, where Airbus sold 4,756 A320s and only 1,784 A321s, and reflects how the dynamics between the variants have shifted.
According to Fleet Discovery, Boeing currently has 1,062 orders for the yet-to-be-certified 737-10, which competes directly with the A321neo.
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