Turkish Airlines' announcement that it will place a massive order for 600 new aircraft in June could break the record of the largest aircraft orders of all time. The record is currently held by Air India after the company requested 470 aircraft (220 Boeing and 250 Airbus) in February.
Turkish massive order
On Thursday, Professor Doctor Ahmed Bolat, Chairman of the Board of Turkish Airlines, noted that the company is looking at announcing an order for 600 aircraft next month. This announcement will take place during the forthcoming International Air Transport Association (IATA) Assembly General Meeting in Istanbul.
Ahmed Bolat said this order is going to be announced with one of the big manufacturers and that it would be composed of around 200 widebody and 400 narrowbody jetliners. Once this order is confirmed, it would become the largest in history, and this year alone would have seen three of the largest orders ever.
The current holder – Air India
In February, Air India put an order for 470 new aircraft with a total market value of $68 billion. This order overtook the previous record holder, American Airlines’ 2011 announcement to acquire 460 planes from the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families.
Air India ordered 210 Airbus A320narrowobody jets for its short and medium-haul operations and 40 Airbus A350s. From Boeing, it ordered 190 Boeing 737 MAX, 20 787s, and ten new 777X airplanes.
What makes it more impressive is that Air India’s order consists only of firm orders, unlike other carriers, which divide their orders into firm and options. A few weeks after Air India’s announcement, reports were published about IndiGo potentially signing an order for 500 aircraft possibly with Airbus. No formal announcement has been made so far.
Other enormous orders
After American Airlines' massive order in 2011, other airlines followed. In the last decade, many carriers and companies have signed deals worth billions of dollars for hundreds of airlines.
In 2017, the equity fund Indigo Partners announced an order for 430 Airbus A320neo aircraft, which would go to four of the airlines it invests in. Frontier Airlines, Wizz Air, Volaris, and JetSMART are still the recipients of new planes coming from this order.
Calling a 200 aircraft order small seems weird (since most airlines don’t even have a fleet that big in the first place), but that’s how we are ranking United Airlines’ 2022 order. Last year the US carrier signed a deal for one hundred Boeing 787 Dreamliners with another one hundred as options. This was the US’ biggest widebody order in history. On that same day, United Announced it was increasing its firm commitment to new MAX aircraft, converting 44 options to firm orders and adding another 56 to get to an even 100.
Ryanair’s massive order in 2023
Besides Air India’s and possibly Turkish Airlines' gigantic orders in 2023, there was another carrier that announced a new deal for hundreds of new planes. This airline is Ryanair which, earlier this week, said it will acquire 300 Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrowbodies.
The order, worth $40 billion, includes 150, which are firm orders. The negotiations for these jetliners had been in place since before the COVID-19 pandemic but stalled as Ryanair and Boeing couldn’t find a mutually agreeable pricing point.
Do you think we will ever see a larger order for commercial aircraft than Turkish Airlines? Let us know in the comments below.